Fausti LX

Fausti are a premiere shotgun maker that was the vision of one Cavalier Stefano Fausti in 1948 who demanded beauty and perfection along with reliability and user satisfaction.

His company is now run by his three daughters Elena, Giovanna and Barbara and offer exclusive and desirable shotguns to the British shooters via Stag Country Sports who are the sole distributor. Situated in the heart of the Italian gun making region of Brescia Fausti use the latest hightech CNC machinery for precise and reliable manufacture but with handfitting for attention to detail.

There are some shooters that desire the best, but their pockets can only afford the average, not so with this Fausti, for the price of an equivalent mainstream game gun you get a premium European manufacturer with that inevitable Italian flair for detail.

It is available is 12-,16-, 20-, 28- and 410-bores in either 70- or 76mm chamberings dependent on calibre. You also have a large choice of barrels lengths starting at 60cm and then 63-, 65-, 71-, 73- or 76cm lengths.

This 20-gauge model of the LX is as like all their LX range designed around the cartridge and therefore the action is commensurate to this calibres size. What you have is a very fast, little and nibble 20-gauge with impeccable handling. It’s also nice to have something different to test from the mainstream shotguns on test.

Wood

High-grade walnut is always synonymous with Fausti and this LX model is no exception. You have a nice overall degree of figuring and depth of colour with interplay along most of the forend and butt sections. This is graded at about a grade 2 but looks like a 3 in my book. It has a neutral cast with 1½ comb and 2¼ drop at heel finished off with a classic red rubber solid recoil pad and black line spacer. A wood butt pad is an option and that would further enhance tis timeless classic design of the LX in my view.

Length of pull is just about right at 14 3/8-inches and the palm swell has no palm swell but doe have my favourite and lovely Prince of Wales grip. This looks excellent and very classy and is also nice to handle too. All checkering is very well executed with rounded forend tip of 10.5-inch length enabling and natural supporting hand hold yet allowing plenty of positionally changes if necessary. A Schnabel tip is available if that’s your preference.

Barrels

I had the 28-inch version with multi chokes with interestingly ¼ top and half bottom fitted, they are steel proofed and overall quality of the bores finish was very good.

Chokes are recessed back from the barrel lip and solid mid rib and vented top with seven equally spaced and sized vents of just over two-inches length each. The rib has a serrated cross grain with single brass bead at the muzzle and is the traditional 6mm width for game use.

Fixed chokes can be order and again would actually be a nice option for an uncomplicated system that just throws good patterns.

Overall finish was as expected a deep high grade lustrous satin bluing and the monobloc action is jewelled finished looks and lubricate retention. The well-timed ejectors were quite mild with the test ammunition with empty cases falling just behind the shooter, which is all you need. A manual or non ejector system can also be ordered if you like too.

The action uses the bottom slide locking bolt system to lock the lumps and captive hardened twin side wall mounted swivel pins allow a free and smooth barrel opening. The action walls have polished action faces with laser cut engraving of grouse rising to the left side plus floral scroll, partridges to right and the base has Class LX and floral engraving plus Made in Italy. The LX model utilised laser engraving techniques and I have to say looks well defined with only a few less well-defined regions to the small details and cut.

The top lever is blued by comparison with floral engraving to it and running either side of the action tang. The safety is Beretta type and a bit shallow to use and non automatic in operation which is my preferred operation. It is an inertia cocking system also, so the first shot sets the hammers for the second shot.

Barrel selection sits within the safety catch and is slide left to right to reveal one red dot i.e. bottom barrel and two dots top barrel. Overall fit and finish is very good for a gun in this price range.

Field test

With the ½ choke fitted to the bottom barrel I selected a variety of cartridges to test on the pattern boards.

First up were the Eley Zenith which is one of the new wave of copper plated pellet loads. It uses a 70mm case with an environmentally friendly fibre wad and I used the 28 gram No 6-shot size load, a good all round 20-gauge loading. I had a total of 211 pellets strike the 30-inch pattern board with 116 pellets striking the outer sectors complimented with the remaining 95 hits in the 15-inch inner sector. The LX shot these very well with mild recoil felt at the shoulder and with those copper plated pellets increasing down range performance.

Hull High Pheasant Extreme is a really good load for any 20-gauge shotgun and especially so in this Fausti LX. Like the previous load despite its longer-range capabilities which shotgunners buy this cartridge for, its recoil was very mild, good design from the stock geometry on this LX. The 30-gram load of No 5 shot is great for game shooters and I had a healthy 194 total pellet hits from the ½ choked barrel.

These High pheasant loads are always well distributed in previous test guns and this Fausti was no difference. I had 101 outer hits and 93 inner strikes with a near perfect even distribution.

Gamebore`s Traditional Game is a smaller cased traditional loading with a smaller 65mm case of 28-grams of No 6 shot load with a fibre wad. This traditional 28-gram fibre wadded load with No 6 shot is good for game and pigeon too, its mild recoiling and allows a quick second shot in the LX. I had 240 pellets on the pattern board distributed 133 pellets in the outer sector and 107 in the inner sectors. Nice even patterns with few holes and ideal for smaller framed shooters as recoil is low.

I also used several other brands to test function, recoil etc and also a couple of subsonic loads from Hull and Eley. These subs shot very well with low noise as expected and low recoil. In the LX they would also make a good training load or close-range vermin combo.

Conclusion

Many shooters would like a Fausti, but their budget will not allow it, so this LX model is made for them. Actually, it’s a great all round lightweight fast handling shotgun in any guise. In 20-gauge it is just about right offering a good blend size, weight and handling. Recoil is very light and for me and my son it shot true to each eye with a very flat down the rib orientation. Some of the engraving was a bit less well-defined, but I can forgive that as you are buying Fausti at a good price.