Living in Ohio I’m limited to the straight walled cartridges, slug guns, muzzleloader or handguns and I have used them all at some point. For the last 5 years I used a Marlin 45-70 with handloads but after getting arthritis, the recoil made it no fun to shoot. My son bought a Savage 350 last year and took a nice doe with it so I thought I’d see what I could find. A smaller shop had Winchester, Savage, CVA and Franchi. They didn’t have Ruger. I went in thinking I’d get a Savage, Winchester or go somewhere else for a Ruger. The guy at the shop recommended either the CVA or Franchi neither of which I knew anything about although I had previously opened a Franchi shotgun.
After some quick googling I ended up buying the Franchi Momentum. MOA guarantee with a card showing the ammo and group, 22” threaded barrel, adjustable trigger, detachable magazine, smooth 60 degree bolt throw, it also includes bases but no rings. When I got it home I cleaned it, mounted a Leupold VX3 2.5-8x36 in low Warne Maxima rings i had. I checked the trigger pull 2 different gauges and it was 2.5# on both.
I took it to the range Wednesday. I should have bore sighted at home because it was too sunny at the range. After pulling the bolt and lining up the bore and scope I was able to get the first shot on paper at 50 yards with FMJ ammo. It dialed in quickly at 50 yards. I took it out to 100 yards and after some fine tuning it was MOA with Winchester Deer Season XP ammo. I have several different types of ammo but this shot so well I didn’t try anything else yet. I’m going back to the range tomorrow to see how the others do.
There is very little recoil with this gun and I’m excited to see how it does if I get a shot Monday. With the accuracy I got from factory ammo I’m not planning on getting reloading supplies yet.
Sorry for the long post but my point is that the rifle serves a purpose here in Ohio and I’m sure other states that require straight walled cartridges. When you factor in the recoil difference between the 350 and other SW cartridges it’s a nice round so far. Time will tell if it’s effective on deer.
Good report on the cartridge and rifle. Thank you.
