Designed to be a “general use” rifle, Franchi’s Momentum All-Terrain Elite is a scout rifle by any other name, with well thought out features.
July 19, 2024
The term “scout rifle” can be very polarizing in some crowds, because some people think the idea of using a bolt action rifle for self-defense is outdated. Legendary gunwriter, firearms trainer, and WWII Marine Corps veteran Jeff Cooper is credited with the creation of the term, but he didn’t invent the concept. In short, a “Scout” is a general purpose rifle, one that is short, light, and handy, and as Cooper said, a rifle “…that will do a great many things equally well….” Cooper envisioned a rifle that could be used for hunting, plinking, and even self-defense if necessary. As he wrote in The Art of the Rifle, “The general-purpose rifle will do equally well for all but specialized hunting, as well as for fighting; thus, it must be powerful enough to kill any living target of reasonable size.” Cooper thought the rifle should be no more than a meter long and no more than three kilograms unloaded—FYI that length is easy, but very few scout rifle manufacturers have been able to make that weight.
I’m bringing all this up because Momentum All-Terrain Elite (MATE?) is an awkward mouthful, and Franchi could just have easily called it the Franchi Scout Rifle and most people would have had a far better idea of what kind of rifle it was, even before they saw it. But, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. The Franchi Momentum All-Terrain Elite is a purpose-built general use rifle—an EDC rifle, if you will, as Franchi says, “…optimized for carry in a truck or ATV as your constant companion.” It is available in .223 Remington or .308 Winchester, and I obtained a sample of the latter for testing as I feel the .308 Win is a far better choice for a rifle that will mostly be used for hunting. It sports an 18-inch barrel tipped with a very effective muzzle brake. The barrel is threaded to 5/8×24, making suppressor mounting easy. The barrel and receiver have a bronze Cerakote finish. Franchi does supply a thread protector (Cerakoted bronze) if you prefer a bare muzzle.
The injection-molded polymer stock has a TrueTimber Strata camo pattern. It is fed by detachable AICS-pattern magazines, and one 10-round magazine was provided with the rifle. I think this rifle looks great, with kind of a “tactical hunter” aesthetic. Five-round magazines protrude just a tiny bit from the polymer magazine well and don’t look quite as “tactical,” if that’s not your thing. The rifle sports an extended MIL STD 1913 “Picatinny” optic rail that extends 3.5 inches over the barrel (a total 8.5 inches in length). While it’s a close fit, it doesn’t touch the barrel. This longer rail allows you to mount the optic of your choice, everything from red dots to extended eye relief scout scopes to traditional riflescopes. This rifle comes with a one-MOA guarantee, and as you’ll see from the accuracy table it is more than capable of that.
If you’re a little vague on Franchi, they are a 150-year-old Italian firearms company known more for their shotguns than rifles, but they make both. In 1994, they were purchased by Beretta, the world’s oldest firearms manufacturer. If your Italian is a little rusty, just a reminder that Franchi is correctly pronounced “fronky.” The Momentum All-Terrain Elite uses Franchi’s standard barreled action which provides a quick 60-degree bolt throw. The receiver mates with the aluminum block in the stock with improved contact when compared to a Remington 700, and over a third more thread engagement between the front action screw and the receiver, increasing strength and rigidity. The polymer stock is injection molded, smooth and almost slick where it is not textured with subdued raised checkering. Personally, I love the look of the TrueTimber Strata camouflage, and the black accents work. The only thing that didn’t work for me (style-wise) was the shiny silver of the three-lug bolt body shining bright, but that’s a small complaint. The barrel free floats inside the forend. The forend of the stock is flat, about two inches wide on the bottom, which makes precision shooting off a backpack/fence rail/whatever a little easier than if it was rounded. At the front of the forend, you’ll see aluminum inserts on either side and the bottom, with two M-LOK slots and a QD socket for all your bipod and sling-mounting needs. There are QD sockets on either side and the bottom of the buttstock. Check out the bottom of the stock—it has a couple small contours that will help if you’ve got your support hand (or a sandbag) tucked under it. The stock uses Franchi’s TSA recoil pad, which is soft rubber and has rounded edges to keep you from hooking it on your clothing.
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The black pistol grip and the comb are hard polymer, not rubber. As it comes from the factory, the low comb put my cheek at the right height to use the emergency (not flipped-up) sights, barely above the rail (more on them in a second). Chances are, if you’re mounting an optic (and almost everyone will be) you’ll want to install the taller comb on the stock. Supplied with the rifle is a higher comb that is much more suitable when using a scope, it raises your head about half an inch. Replacing the comb is easy, and you’ll just need your fingers, no tools—they pop in and out and are held in place by spring tension. With the taller comb you’ll need to remove it to remove your bolt.
This rifle is 40-inches long, just a tad over Cooper’s recommended one-meter length for a scout rifle, although you can pull off the muzzle brake if that last inch is bothering you. Franchi has the weight listed as 7.5 ounces, but in truth, with an empty magazine in place, this rifle weighs 7 lbs. 5 ounces. The longer rail, the aluminum M-LOK inserts in the stock, and the fact that this rifle doesn’t have a whip-thin ultralight barrel all add ounces to the weight, but it is still short and handy and balances in front of the magazine well. The Momentum All-Terrain Elite uses Franchi’s Relia Trigger, a single stage trigger that broke at 3.75 pounds on my sample, with no take-up and a crisp break. It is adjustable from two to four pounds. The trigger guard is polymer. Between the magazine well and the trigger guard you’ll see a paddle-style magazine release. It can be used from either side of the rifle. Push it forward with the tip of your trigger finger, or use the thumb of your support hand. Empty magazines drop free. The magazines wiggle a bit inside the well, which I didn’t much care for, but this did not affect reliability at all.
You’ll see a two-position safety in the expected place, forward for fire, back for safe (marked with red and white dots respectively). You can work the bolt fully when the rifle is on Safe, but pulling the trigger does nothing. Let’s talk about the included sights on this rifle. Backup sights separate hunting and competition guns from guns suited for defensive use, and I’m glad to see them on a rifle that is meant to handle everything. You actually get two sets of sights—when laid flat, these sights provide an emergency pistol-style notch/post three-dot setup, so you don’t even have to flip them up to use them. Depending on how you’ve got your scope and rings set up, you theoretically might be able to use them beneath your scope. The flip-up sights have detents to help keep them up or down, but they don’t lock in place. Flipped up, your sightline is about 0.85 in. above the top of the rail. The rear sight has a single steel aperture that is adjustable for windage. The front sight looks like a standard AR-15 post front sight protected by wings. The polymer bodies of the sights look/feel a little inexpensive to me, but they work.
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The people that roll their eyes at the scout rifle concept seem to forget Jeff Cooper was more than willing to adapt. He originally specced a stripper clip guide for quicker reloading, but I’m sure would have been perfectly satisfied with the detachable box magazines found in this rifle. He specced extended eye relief scopes for his scouts simply because they were the only kind of scope on the market that you could use at speed with two eyes open. Low-power variable optics (LPVOs) weren’t really a thing back in the day, but I know Cooper would have seen their utility on rifles like this. A 1-6x LPVO seemed to me like a good choice for this rifle—a bit smaller and lighter than 1-8x scopes, while having enough magnification for a general use rifle. I had a Burris RT-6 1-6x on hand and mounted it to the Franchi. Low rings might seem the way to go, but depending on how low your low rings are, and how fat the eyepiece of your scope, you might have issues clearing the rear sight, which even when folded down sticks up above the rail about a third of an inch. I would have preferred to mount the RT-6 about half an inch forward of where you see it, but the rear sight simply didn’t allow it unless I used taller rings. FYI: I used SIG Alpha1 low aluminum rings, putting the scope midline 0.94 in. above the rail, which was a perfect height for me when using the raised comb.
I first shot one of these rifles at our company’s 2023 Editorial Roundtable, held at the Cameo Shooting and Education Complex in Colorado. There, you’re shooting at steel targets arrayed up a rocky mountainside, stretching out past 600 yards. I didn’t take the Franchi out that far, but hitting out past 200 yards simply resting my elbows on the shooting bench was easy. That rifle was also a .308, mounting the 1-6x Burris. During subsequent testing my adult son and his friends had fun hammering cardboard silhouettes offhand, seeing how fast they could work the bolt. This rifle is built to run. With the muzzle brake in place recoil is almost mild, the rifle does not beat you up. During my family range trip, we were also shooting bird shot through a 12-gauge Mossberg 500, and the Franchi had significantly less recoil. It is loud, though, and that short, threaded barrel seems a good candidate for a suppressor. No supersonic .308 loads are ear safe through any suppressor, so something short and light—like the Banish Backcountry from Silencer Central—seems like the best choice to me. While the forend is setup for easy installation of a bipod, a good shooting sling—and more importantly knowing how to use it properly—would be a better choice than a bipod. A quality leather sling would match the aesthetics of this rifle more than a nylon one in my opinion, but you do you.
The .308 Winchester is one of the most popular rifle cartridges in this country. Just about every ammo manufacturer loads .308, and you can find bullet weights from 125- to 180-grains. The .308 Winchester—loaded with the right bullets—is more than capable of taking any game found on this continent. I used a .308 Win loaded with copper solid bullets to down a 600-lb nilgai in Texas with one shot back in the day. If you wanted to build a modern “scout rifle” as good for defense as hunting, an AR chambered in something beefy (6.5 Grendel, .300 HAMR, .308 Win) and topped by an LPVO would be a much better choice. It’s the 21st century—you want a semi-auto for self-defense, if that’s your main concern. But if you’re looking for a general use hunting rifle that—in a pinch—could be used defensively, this Franchi seems an excellent choice—accurate and damn good looking, distinctive and classy, with a European pedigree, and competitively priced.
Franchi Momentum All-Terrain Elite Specs
- Type: Bolt action centerfire
- Caliber: .308 Win. (tested), .223 Rem.
- Capacity: 10 rds. (AICS-Pattern mags)
- Barrel Length: 18 in., threaded 5/8×24
- Muzzle Device: Muzzlebrake
- Overall Length: 40 in.
- Weight: 7 lbs., 5 oz.
- Twist: 1/11
- Stock: Synthetic w/True Timber Strata pattern
- Finish: Midnight Bronze Cerakote
- Sights: Flip Up
- Trigger: Relia Trigger Adj. 2-4 lbs. (3.75 lbs tested)
- Accessories: One 10-round magazine, two combs
- MSRP: $1,449
- Contact: Franchi USA
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