A little Italian stunner
Becky McKenzie is taken with the Fabarm Axis RS12, a lot of gun for the money
This little gun – the Axis RS12 from Fabarm – caught my eye while perusing the gun shop at Sporting Targets. To be honest, I am not sure if the Fabarm classes itself as a Sporter or a Trap gun, because of the semi-high rib it has.
The Fabarm factory was launched in around 1900 by the Galesi family, one of the great Brescian gunmaking dynasties. The name Fabarm comes from Fabbrica Bresciana Di Armi, which I think translates to ‘arms manufacturer in Brescia’. In the first decades of the 20th century, Fabarm produced mainly side-by-side shotguns, alongside pistols. After World War II, production took off with overand-unders.
Today, Fabarm has a huge selection of goodies – bolt-action rifles, combination guns, express rifles, hunting shotguns and semi-automatic shotguns, proper lefthanded semi-autos, over-and-unders, a big range in Elos, available in 12-, 20- and 28-bore, even pump-action semi-autos and a nice ladies’ range in the Elos too. Then we come on to the competition range – the Axis RS, available in Sporting and Trap, Elos N2, in Sporting and Trap, competition semi-autos and a large offering of law enforcement weaponry – the list is endless.
Detail
On the RS12 I used, the rib is not flat but slightly higher, with a 10mm-8mm tapered top rib. The Trap version definitely has a much higher rib. The barrels, similar in look to the Kreighoff K-80 Super Sporter, are semi-floating, with no mid-rib. Fabarm calls these Tribore HP floating barrels. The chokes provided with the RS12 are Exis HP chokes, cylinder, improved cylinder, half, three-quarters and full.
The receiver/action is made of forged steel and finished in black satin, which
I found rather pleasing to the eye – nothing dazzling, just some nice engraving, with a gold embossed RS12 on the side. The action is robust and a simple piece of engineering; there are few components to its construction. To me, this means fewer things to go wrong, and if they did, they would be simple to fix.
Fabarm calls the trigger system Racing Triggers. The triggers are light at around 3lb, crisp and have a quicker locking time. Barrel
selection is by a rocker in the safety catch, nothing to get excited about.
I really liked the look of this gun. The one I selected also had 30in matt-black barrels with satin finish. My first impressions were that it was impressive without being too blingy. The gun came up sweetly and fitted nicely into the shoulder. The stock is 377mm or 14.85in length of pull, with drop at comb being 38mm and drop at heel 51mm. It comes with an adjustable comb too, and I believe this is available on most of the Axis RS models, though searching through Guntrader there were just a few with a fixed Monte Carlo-style stock. The one I used did have an adjustable comb on a Monte Carlostyle stock, so I didn’t actually need to adjust it. That said, if it was my own gun, then I probably would have just tweaked it a little.
The wood, Turkish, was of decent quality, oiled, with a fore-end that was rounded in looks and felt good in my left hand. The chequering was neither too sharp nor too smooth, the grip suitably deep, and the Axis RS also has an adjustable trigger, so you can fine-tune its position instead of having to move your hand backwards or forwards to reach the trigger. There is a well-positioned palm swell, which I found comfortable and easy to hold.
Back to the barrels, the RS12 top rib is easily interchangeable for a higher version of the same design which, I was informed, comes free of charge with the gun. So, with a rib you can change, an adjustable stock and an adjustable trigger, you really have