42 http://www.riflemagazine.com Rifle 305
Holding Group.) I requested the
scoped package, because over the
years Fullfield IIs have proven to
be very reliable, and the Ballistic
Plex reticle is useful. The combi-
nation features two-piece Burris
Tactical steel bases, essentially
very short Picatinny rails, but if
another mounting system is pre-
ferred, the Momentum takes bases
for the Remington 700. On an ac-
curate balance scale the scoped
rifle weighed 7 pounds, 14 ounces.
Even after comparing my Texas
photos of the Horizons with the
Momentum, I could not find the
small differences between the
rifles. However, I did squeeze the
forend, and the barrel proved to
be free-floated. The inside of the
hammer-forged barrel looked very
smooth in my Hawkeye borescope,
and yes, the muzzle is threaded for
a brake or suppressor. (This fea-
ture was not added for the U.S.
market. While many American
shooters believe all European
countries have very restrictive gun
laws, any rifle owner in France,
Finland or Norway can purchase
a suppressor pretty cheaply with-
out paying a government tax.)
Next I removed the barreled
action from the stock, primar-
ily to tweak the trigger, a typical
modern “enclosed” mechanism
sandwiched between two pieces
of sheet steel. Franchi indicates
it can be adjusted from 2 to 4
pounds, and the factory pull aver-
aged 3 pounds, 6 ounces with no-
ticeable, but not excessive, creep.Many enclosed triggers have three
adjustment screws for poundage,
creep and over-travel, but the Mo-
mentum only has one. I adjusted
the pull down to 2 pounds, and the
creep went away.
Instead of a traditional recoil
lug, the front of the action has
two shallow slots machined at
90 degrees to each other which
fit over small bedding lugs in the
stock. Similar systems are becom-
ing more common on newer rifles,
and while they may sound like a
cheap compromise for faster man-
ufacturing, lug-free bedding can
enhance accuracy by reducing
stress on the action during firing.
After replacing the stock, the
Momentum was taken to the range
with three factory loads and two
handloads worked up for other
.308s. All the ammunition, except
one handload, resulted in three-
shot, 100-yard groups averaging
.81 inch. The “bad” handload, com-
bining Hodgdon Varget and Nosler
150-grain AccuBonds, had shot
very well in several other rifles.
After the range session I de-
cided the Momentum needed to
officially join the other rifles in my
safe so sent Franchi a check – but
waited until spring arrived before
experimenting with the AccuBond
handload. The fix turned out to
be tweaking the bullet’s seating
depth, whereupon the load started
grouping well under an inch.
That fall, I got invited on an-
other Momentum field test, a mule
deer hunt in northern New Mex-
ico – a “cull” hunt put together by
a well-known outfitter who had
recently leased a ranch that had
previously been over-hunted. As a
result, quite a few bucks only had
two or three tines on at least one
antler, rather than the typical dou-
ble forks, and the outfitter wanted
them out of the gene pool.
This time the Momentums were
6.5 Creedmoors fitted with Bur-
ris Eliminator III range-compen-
sating laser scopes. During the
sight-in session I squeezed the
forends of the rifles, and all turned
out to be completely free-floated.
The internal ballistic program
in the scopes had already beenFranchi
Momentum
After all the preparation for a longer shot, John’s buck was taken at 101 yards.
Quite a few
deer hunters
would be happy
with this four-
shot group at
100 yards, but
it was shot with
a 6.5 Creedmoor
at 300 yards
with Hornady
Precision Hunter
ammunition.