It seems almost irreverent to define certain cartridges as minimal when they have offered and still offer veteran hunters and very young nembrotti ample satisfaction in certain needs that are small for their size, but enormous for the satisfaction that is linked to them. Let's review the box of today's 9 mm Flobért caliber cartridges in a beautiful chromatic guise and our thoughts turn exactly to sixty years ago when, at the age of twelve, the first powder cartridge rifle arrived for Christmas, a Beretta Mod. 412, single barrel so comraded and about which a friend with some hunting experience had told us wonders. At the time it was common for kids to start using rifles for target shooting and small hunting very early, receiving gifts of this kind on the canonical dates along with a few and well-defined rules of behavior that could not be ignored. Culture and empowerment were the basis of the general formation of the individual and it was never too early to start it: what is rooted in the mind in its early development is hardly sidetracked later on, while deferring such practices will find an increasingly less receptive ground. , more critical and pedantic, the legacy of '68 that has never passed through us, with which everyone is convinced that they can discuss everything without knowing.
But let's go back to our shotguns and the cartridges that animate them. Today's packaging of the 9 mm Flobért set up by Fiocchi is shiny and scicchettosa not only for the sturdy cardboard of the box and the chromatic print with golden areas in elegant contrast with the red of the brand and the company cartouche and then again with a dark green from which appears on two lines Flobert 9 mm - DF shot; on a clearly visible disk, the number 10 stands out, referring to the numbering of the shot, and the wording 50 cartridges relating to the content; on the sides the CIP standards, the English word Shot and a further clarification on the dots n. 10 with 1,9 mm in diameter and the characteristic of ring percussion.
The cartridge
In the practical plastic beehive, the cartridges are arranged which can be easily removed with two fingers and equipped with a brass case of beautiful effect and safe functionality: we recall how once this caliber saw nickel-plated cases in use while the closure with a cardboard pressed in its seat without the need for hemming. On the back stands the Scudetto with the initials GFL, decidedly more satisfying than the "F" lowercase and italics in use for several years. The historical brands must be maintained, perhaps with very small aesthetic updates: we recall the RR of the automotive field which went from red to black upon the death of one of the two partners, if we remember well Royce. The workmanship is decidedly of high class as is required for a company that has its strong point in the executive refinement and in the choice of the best materials: the sturdy round prominence on the bottom acts as a coupling for the extractor and contains the propellant for the primer of this rimfire cartridge. The initials DF means Double Strength: today it is the only one to be produced while at one time the simple strength sisters were also offered with a proportionally shortened case. Don't make all this smile: once upon a time speculation, understood in the Latin sense of saving and therefore of proportional adjustment between expenditure and business, was a very popular factor and the choice of offices was a precise function of what was needed. We remember how the father of our master of the hut hunt loaded his cartridges with incoherent wads made from materials usually thrown away and saved on cards by sealing the charge with a drop of wax ... so much the rifle was always pointing upwards or because in the small rack of the shed or because it is directed towards the preys placed on the branches at no more than a dozen meters.
Today's use
Behind the hedges of branches or the backdrops of green reeds, hidden on barns or at worst in the chicken coops of farmhouses owned by complacent peasants, the kids of the 50s and early 60s threatened sparrows, then very abundant, and at the appropriate time many other varieties of birds that can be hunted without problems; the alternative was to hunt fur prey in the form of rats that never lacked in certain passages of the aforesaid farms. Then growing up the era of the shed had begun with live calls: it certainly did not fall within the traditions of Savoy Piedmont and only thanks to a character who came from the lower Brescia area, the good Costantino, the possibilities of such experiences were realized that would last for decades with great satisfaction. The 9 Flobért had become the support shotgun for the sockets closest to the hiding place now made of wood with a gas canister and a radiant heater for the colder periods: the 20 and 28 gauges held the scene with a 12 always ready to solve the most intricate issues. Coming to the present day, the huts of the Mella valley always host a similar battery of rifles because the spirit of saving qualifies the hunters in the area: the useless waste of energy, dust and shot, is rightly frowned upon so at a glance you know that this grip is at tot meters and it takes 20, the other is satisfied with 28, and the one there that you seem to touch with the barrel is mastered by the small 9 mm. In addition to the distance factor, the size of the prey obviously plays: brambles, cross and delight of this hunt, are treated with care and savings, the very clever and robust cesene deserve and obtain something much more decisive. We close by underlining how this form of venation is unfortunately also disliked by a good number of hunters, both with the dog and with the rifled barrel: we belong to the latter, but we would like to affirm that the poetry of a shed is of incredible finesse, very difficult to understand by those who have never tried it.
Shooting tests
We used UIT targets from PA and rapid fire from PGC: the circles measure 4,5 cm respectively for the fly, 10 cm for the "10", 18 cm for the "9" and 26 cm for the "8". We have fired on the white reverse with a central black spot for aiming reference, but we present the targets from the black part where you can best observe the holes of the small pellets n. 10 by 1,9 mm; sometimes the hole created by the wad is visible. We immediately notice how at 12 meters the Anschütz tends to close the groups more, thus guaranteeing greater damage with a greater number of pellets on the prey at the price of a more accurate aim. It is evident that this distance of 12 m is the one with certain chances of success while at 20 m the uncertainty of both the home and Beretta, however, allows a better result. Ultimately, we can define 16 m as the maximum range useful in order not to waste the shot and, above all, not to injure the game.