obby1,
Franchi is made by Benelli. The two guns look similar. I myself own an SBE and wouldn't take for it. This past waterfowl season my brother-in-law and some friends went to the duck blind and the goose fields. While hunting Geese in the sandy peanut fields, one friend of ours had an SBE and was sitting right beside me, his gun was jamming because of the fine gritted sand but mine was cycling like a champ. The SBE is a dam fine gun and just keep in mind that it is ALL in how you clean it and what you clean it with. I only wiped mine down for about a month only because my dog stepped on it and got mudd down in the action. But while the mudd was still in the action during the hunt, it never failed me one time. Matter of fact, it has never failed not once. Even shooting low brass 1 1/8 ounce loads through it. I guarantee you you will not be disappointed in a Benelli SBE. BTW, if you look on Benelliusa.com you will find at the bottom of their site a link to Franchi. Franchi also has a link to Benelliusa on their site as well. In case anyone is wondering what I clean my guns with, it's BreakFree with CLP and for the bore I use Synthetic Nitro Solvent to improve velocity. Good luck!