Franchi Mod. 641
- Category
- Assault Rifle
- Barrel
- Not recorded
- Weight, empty
- Not recorded
- Introduced
- Not recorded
About
What it is, and why it matters
The Franchi Mod. 641 (also designated G41) was an Italo-German prototype assault rifle chambered in 5.56x45mm NATO, developed jointly by Luigi Franchi and Heckler & Koch in the early 1980s. A select-fire weapon derived from the CETME/H&K G3 lineage but reworked to use a gas-piston operating system, it featured an M16-style carrying handle and an integral bipod. Franchi, primarily a shotgun maker, partnered with H&K to enter the Italian rifle trials seeking a replacement for the Beretta BM59, but the design lost to the Beretta AR70/90.
Franchi, a firm famous for sporting and combat shotguns, had neither the time nor the in-house experience to design an assault rifle from scratch for the Italian trials, so it teamed with Heckler & Koch to graft a gas-piston system onto the G3/CETME lineage rather than build a rifle of its own.
A rare prototype; detailed physical measurements were never widely published. Distinguished from the standard H&K G41 by its gas-operated action in place of H&K's roller-delayed blowback.
Specification
Everything measured
IdentityWhat it is, who built it and when.
- Manufacturer
- Luigi Franchi S.p.A.
- Category
- Assault Rifle
- Country
- Italy
- Status
- Prototype
ActionHow it cycles, what trips it, and what feeds it.
- Action
- Gas operated
- Firing mechanism
- Hammer fired
- Magazine
- Detachable box
MaterialsEach swatch is the material itself, not a colour chosen to stand for it.
- Frame
- Steel
- Barrel
- Steel
Trajectory
What the round does downrange
Solved from the muzzle figures and the bullet. The dashed rule is the effective range on the record, and the crosses are the steps the solver returned.
No load solved for this record yetThe flight path is computed from a cartridge and a bullet. This record has no ammunition filed against its chambering, so there is nothing to solve.
Features
What it has
What the record lists as fitted, drawn from the catalogue.
Carrying handle
Integral bipod
Select fire
Standing
How it compares
This record has too few measurements to compare with others yet.
Answers
Questions about the Franchi Mod. 641
What caliber is the Franchi Mod. 641?
The Franchi Mod. 641 is chambered in 5.56x45mm NATO.
Who makes the Franchi Mod. 641?
The Franchi Mod. 641 is made by Luigi Franchi S.p.A. (Italy).
How does the Franchi Mod. 641 operate?
The Franchi Mod. 641 uses a gas operated action, and its firing mechanism is hammer fired.
Compatibility
Which parts fit this firearm
Studio
Every part that mounts on this, resolved
Not a list the maker typed out: the answer comes from the mounts this firearm exposes and the interface each part needs, so it stays right when either one changes.
- Every part that mounts on any firearm in the catalogue
- Interface standards, platforms and fit overrides
- The same answers through the API and the MCP server
Requires a signed-in GunSpec account on the Studio plan. The answer is computed per part, so it is not part of the public record.
Provenance
What the record holds
Every figure above was taken from one of these pages. The confidence reflects how much of the record came from a page a claim can be checked against.
Provenance
Confidence in this record
60%
Stockists
Where to buy
Offers link straight to the shop. GunSpec never takes the order.
No shop has listed this firearm yet
Stock and prices come from the shops themselves. If you sell this firearm, you can list it and it appears here.
List a firearmMCP
Ask an assistant about it
The same record, reached the way a person asks for it rather than the way a program does.
Ask GunSpec
Works with
Point an MCP client at GunSpec and it answers from the catalogue rather than from memory. A free key covers the read tools.
API
The call that returns this record
The same fields, in the same units, from the same endpoint the page reads.
curl --request GET \ --url 'https://api.gunspec.io/v1/firearms/franchi-mod-641' \ --header 'X-API-Key: your_key'{ "id": "franchi-mod-641", "name": "Franchi Mod. 641", "manufacturer": { "id": "franchi", "name": "Luigi Franchi S.p.A.", "countryCode": "IT", "foundedYear": 1868, "website": "https://www.franchiusa.com", "logoUrl": null, "description": null, "status": null, "defunctYear": null, "stateOwned": null, "makesFirearms": null, "parentId": null, "predecessorId": null, "createdAt": "2026-02-11 23:44:38", "updatedAt": "2026-02-18 03:43:49", "version": "a5e70b9adaae2d70e626c2f032df16c3d24c410fd519733f13f25ba8a4315ec6" }, "category": { "id": "assault-rifle", "name": "Assault Rifle", "description": "Selective-fire rifles chambered in intermediate cartridges" }, "country_of_origin": "IT", "year_introduced": null, "barrel_length_mm": null, "weight_empty_g": null, "action_type": "gas_operated"}