TargetTalk

New FAS 6007 standard pistol now available.... Email I've just received from FAS below -

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Dear Friend,
We are glad to inform you that everything is ready !
A lot of news are show in next Nuremberg IWA Outdoor Classic fair!
Finally you touch with your hand new FAS rifle AR 611 and .. new FAS pistol 6007 cal. 22 l.r. !!!

We are in HALL 7 / 7-102

If you want meeting us and receive many more information, please send us an email for a meeting before the end of February.
We will inform you about the availability schedules in days 6-7-8 March 2015.

Thank you and
Best Regards,
Mr. Mencarelli Raffaele
CEO DOMINO Srl

DOMINO S.r.l.
Via IV Novembre 54
20019 Settimo Milanese (MI) ITALY
Tel. 02 33512040 - Fax 02 36514751
P.IVA (Vat) 10587440156
OPENING
from Monday to Friday
09:00 - 12:15 | 14:30 - 17:00
commercial orders and quotes info@dominoguns.com
accessories and technical assistance info@dominoguns.it
marketing, sponsor and advertising marketing@dominoguns.com
CEO amministrazione@dominoguns.com
FAS pistols faspistols@dominoguns.com

I believe that when I hold one in my grubby hands...

Because this thread would be useless without pics... Here's what the pistol looked like in a video from two years ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mx9VkhoCNVQ

desben wrote:Because this thread would be useless without pics... Here's what the pistol looked like in a video from two years ago.

I suspect that would have been a 607 rather than the 6007.

It would be interesting to know whether they are using the hammer box internal design from the later 607s or the MUCH better (IMHO) internal design from the earlier 607s and 602s.

The early ones had the "dip/click" just before the final let-off; that disappeared on the later ones.

Tycho wrote:I believe that when I hold one in my grubby hands...

You know Tycho, when I created this topic - I just knew you were going to say this!

Oh ye of little faith !

desben wrote:Because this thread would be useless without pics... Here's what the pistol looked like in a video from two years ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mx9VkhoCNVQ

I tried to pry a picture out of Raffaele - no deal until it's official launching at IWA next month...

Remember this......6007 ? .... now that would be nice.

How good were these FAS pistols when they were being made? How would they rate against modern Pardini, FWB and Walther?

I'm new to this. While having more choice seems like a good thing, I wonder what these could offer that's not already available with established brands.

desben wrote:How good were these FAS pistols when they were being made? How would they rate against modern Pardini, FWB and Walther?

The 602 and, to a lesser extent, the 607 were extremely forgiving pistols (providing you chose the most suitable barrel shroud or weights for you). A bad shot was not as severely punished as with other pistols.

The trigger on the 602 and early 607 was superb. It had a sort of click/dip just before it released so you could hold it, confidently, at the let-off point with very little additional finger pressure required. This feeling was removed on the later 607s making the trigger feel like any other quality standard pistol.

The bad thing was that they needed a bit more care and attention than many other guns.

The above is dependant on the usual caveat, "if it suited you".

desben wrote:How good were these FAS pistols when they were being made? How would they rate against modern Pardini, FWB and Walther?

Ask yourself this question, why has Pardini dominated the market, and why have FWB and Walther continued to sell pistols while FAS disappeared?

Answer: FAS was an ergonomically great pistol, but most owners went insane dealing with malfunctions (should add that the 603 was pretty reliable).

j-team wrote:

desben wrote:How good were these FAS pistols when they were being made? How would they rate against modern Pardini, FWB and Walther?

Ask yourself this question, why has Pardini dominated the market, and why have FWB and Walther continued to sell pistols while FAS disappeared?

Answer: FAS was an ergonomically great pistol, but most owners went insane dealing with malfunctions (should add that the 603 was pretty reliable).

Dunno - maybe the management of the company?

There is certainly nothing wrong with the guns themselves- they still set the benchmark for clever design and engineering.

FAS pistols are still enormously popular in Australia and have set quite a few national and state records - some of them still current.

As an owner of a FAS 603 and having shot several 602's and 607's (and got them going again for owners who were struggling with them) I'm convinced that most of the reliability issues associated with FAS cartridge pistols could be solved if better quality spring steel were used for the springs. Recoil springs, trigger springs, buffer clips etc all seem to lose their "oomph" far quicker than any pistol I'm familiar with. My AW93 is still on its first recoil spring after 12 years and tens-of-thousands of rounds fired (with malfunctions that could be counted on one hand in that time) where as my 603 seems to need a new one annually regardless how much use it gets or failure-to-feed malfunctions start to regularly occur. If Chiappa and / or FAS (whoever is making them) could get some high quality (say) German-made springs manufactured to meet their specifications, they would well be on their way to improving the pistol's reliability reputation. A top-quality German spring may cost 2 - 3 times more than an inexpensive Italian spring but in terms of the overall cost of the pistol, the price increase would be minimal.

Maybe they were hit and miss.
Over about 8 years I never had a malfunction with the right ammo, RWS Pistol Match for the 602, RWS R25 for the 601, Eley also worked well, I never changed a spring in either.
I kept them spotlessly clean, and lapped the slide where it rode over the hammer - that area could be quite rough.

FAS seemed to go quiet for a period, I tried to buy a new one at one point, the importer told me FAS wouldn't send him any, the factory told me he wouldn't place an order.

I have found them very forgiving, a roll-off trigger and rearward centre of gravity work for me.

I still have my "igiDomino" model DOMINO 601 not FAS. It performed almost faultlessly for many years. The only problem was a fatigue crack from a sharp corner (after 5 years) which resulted in one of the cocking lugs coming off. The free replacement was of a different construction.

BTW I would not place too much emphasis on the veracity of the FAS website, as it quotes John McNally as having won 5 Olympic gold medals from 1984 to 2000.
http://www.dominoguns.com/index.php/mor ... t=34&sku=7

He was certainly there but his highest place was 5th.

http://www.sports-reference.com/olympic ... lly-2.html

Games ▴ Age City Sport Event Team NOC Rank Medal
1984 Summer 28 Los Angeles Shooting Men's Rapid-Fire Pistol, 25 metres United States USA 26T
1988 Summer 32 Seoul Shooting Men's Rapid-Fire Pistol, 25 metres United States USA 7
1992 Summer 36 Barcelona Shooting Men's Rapid-Fire Pistol, 25 metres United States USA 5
1996 Summer 40 Atlanta Shooting Men's Rapid-Fire Pistol, 25 metres United States USA 12T
2000 Summer 44 Sydney Shooting Men's Rapid-Fire Pistol, 25 metres United States USA 15T

I actually still think the FAS was a great design. Pity that nobody went and improved on it. Get the grip higher on the frame, and an improved trigger, and it would still shoot circles around many other pistols. QC wasn't that impressive though, but once a FAS worked, it would do so for a long time. But I heard so many rumours about a "new" FAS in the last 15 years, I'd be a millionaire if I got a thousand bucks every time Raffi Mencarelli posted that "news".

Brian Girling wrote:I still have my "igiDomino" model DOMINO 601 not FAS......

FAS and Domino came from the same source. This from an earlier FAS6004 discussion:

“….in the early 1970s... Massimo Mencarelli [who died in 2013]... established a small manufacturing laboratory called FAS - Fabbrica Armi Sportive ("Sporting Guns Factory") in the city of Milan… His son − Mr. Raffaele Mencarell, owner and manager of the DOMINO Guns Import & Export S.r.l. company…" http://tinyurl.com/nklwgfb


Fwiw, my 602 could be finicky unless it got spendy European match ammunition. That was probably related to its chamber size and recoil spring. Otherwise, never a mechanical problem and it was quite pleasant to shoot.

"But I heard so many rumours about a "new" FAS in the last 15 years, I'd be a millionaire if I got a thousand bucks every time Raffi Mencarelli posted that "news"."

Your wait is over. Don't know what other countries are doing, but the Australian distributor of Steyr and Morini pistols - and the possessor of a large cache of FAS spares, is going to IWA in Nuremburg next week to secure Australian distribution rights for the 6007 and other FAS products.... He wouldn't do this if there was no new gun.

"Pity that nobody went and improved on it. Get the grip higher on the frame, and an improved trigger"

Maybe they have, we will have to wait and see. Though I should say that my 6004 is exactly the same as my 604, but of higher quality.

Teaser pictures....

https://www.facebook.com/FAS.DOMINO/pos ... 7802924637