Fabarm H368 Owners Manual

Old thread but I finally got around to buying a Fabarm Waterfowler from Arnzen Arms at the Anoka Game Fair yesterday. Went with the 28 inch barrel. The new True Timber Viper camo looks nice and home it went!

Nice soft sided carrying case too. I didn’t expect that. It points dead flat for me with the higher rib and I see no rib and both beads are tangent to each other on the bottom. I have a long neck so a bit higher rib helps. Not sure what shim came from the factory, but my buddy held it and saw the back of the receiver and no beads. At least he won’t be borrowing it!Very nice looking shotgun!My concern would be if the 'Soft Touch' rubberized coating turns out like the Dura Touch (latex) coating on Browning shotguns that can become 'tacky' and peel off in large sections. Did the owner's manual address any cleaning protocols for this coating?NRA Life Member.

For those not aware, Fabarm does sell a kinetic recoil reducer that will simply thread into the stock nut holding the stock onto the receiver. It weighs 5.2 ounce and is filled with a dense, loose fill material that will shake back and forth.

My waterfowler weighed 7 lbs 7.8 oz with a 28 in barrel and 7 lbs 13 oz with the weight installed in the butt stock. The balance point moved back about one inch and took away some of the “barrel heaviness” of the stock gun. I like the new balance. Looking forward to shooting with this installed. I am Italian and until I moved here I shooted Fabarm for almost 20years with shotguns I bought directly in factory since I lived nearby and I have a friend who works there.

I had several models of every generation and they are not the same. The lasts models XLR and L4S requires a thinner layer of lubricant but most important you need to use a oil who reacts well with temperature variations.

They handle excessive amount of dirt very badly. Oil needs to resist very well to typical overheating and burning of the shorter gas port of L4S and when you go down around 30°F it needs to keep good viscosity and not act as a 'brake' to the gun. From my humble opinion the level of finishing and design that has been reached by FABARM is very very very good and their guns are able to give great satisfactions. Reliability has been lowered a bit and often I missed my old Fabarms of 90's.

My L4s would have never been able to resist to serious hunting sessions I did all around Europe with H368 or previous models. I just started using my Waterfowler as a sporting clays gun for a short 4 week league to get ready for hunting season. It would jam about 2 times per round of fifty with 1 and 1/8 target loads.

Previously with 3 inch loads I never had an issue. The shell was being loaded into the chamber by the lifter too much toward the ejection port.

2nd shell snagged on lip of chamber after firing first. Pushing front of shell a bit sideways and it would whisk right in. Looking close at the shell lifter carrier it was not centered in the loading port. This is the second new auto I’ve had with this issue. Rather than send it in, I popped the trigger group, removed the carrier and by hand slightly bent each leg of the carrier to move carrier towards the back side of the receiver away from the ejection port.

After my tweak I tested loading in my shop my loading shells into the magazine and then holding gun horizontally with ejection port facing the ground. I was able to whisk a shell repeated into the chamber from the magazine even having to work against the force of gravity trying to pull it out the ejection port. Hoping this does the trick and I’ll know next week out on the course. Just passing along for what it’s worth and to see if anyone else has the occasional jam from the shell sitting a bit proud to the right in the ejection port instead of chambering. Not my first choice as I have many other shotguns for clays, but I really like a slightly raised rib being tall with long neck and this has it. Also soft touch comb is nice but comes more into play with snotty waterfowl loads.

Matt rib extending over action is nice too. I pulled this out since early goose season right around the corner and it’s time to switch over to hunting mode. I’ll be shooting some other hunting guns soon at clays too once this four week mini league is over. I think any of the Fabarms would make for nice all a-rounders for clays and hunting. I added the factory butt weight to the Waterfowler and enjoy a bit more heft and balance when loaded with two in the mag tube.

Of course registered guys will want something more dedicated but for a guy shooting at the league level for score the gun will not hold you back. I turned in a 43 last night out of fifty. Nobody ran em and the ones I missed I misread and needed one or two targets to figure out the “trick.” Twice missing two of the A or B birds on a station then getting the third one once dialed in. More importantly I beat my buddy shooting my old 525 Browning sporting clays that I sold him by 2 targets! I received a PM on exactly what I’d did so I will explain in a bit more detail for the benefit of the entire Board. First, turn your gun over and see if the lifter is centered in the loading port and make a mental note of which way it needs to be adjusted.

If it’s closer to ejection port and not centered this may help. Pull trigger group. If lifter pivot and spring loaded plunger is dirty gunky etc. Clean first and retry before bending anything. If things are clean pull c clip holding pivot pin in and pull pivot pin. Be very careful to not let spring plunger that runs on the lifter cam to fly across the room!

Remove lifter from pivot block. Put plunger and spring in a safe place. Bending the out board lifter leg with the cam the plunger engages towards the inboard smooth lifter leg will move the lifter away from the ejection port towards back of receiver. I made my bend by hand.

You could clamp lifter in a vice if you wish. It doesn’t take much since the pivot point is about 3.5 plus inches from the lifter end.

A small amount will move the end of the lifter a fair bit. You can always add a bit more bend if needed. Just push it towards the smooth leg. Next you need to pull the smooth leg out so the lifter will slip onto the pivot block. Lifter legs should smoothly slide past pivot block.

If legs need to be flared out as you push it on you need more clearance. You want just a bit of slop. If not, it will hang up with too much friction. I proved that on my first attempt. Also, you don’t want to have to compress the smooth leg to reinstall the c clip holding the pivot pin.

That’s asking the c clip to do too much and it could pop off later. Adjust smooth leg to get just a bit of clearance.

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Make sure everything clean and lube. I like Hornaday one shot. Install plunger and spring in its bore.

Slip lifter into position and install pivot pin. Put retainer c clip on. It should flip up and down easy and not bind. If it binds your clearance to pivot block is not enough.

Fabarm Choke Guide

Put trigger group in and test it. Hopefully things will be better. Remember this is a fix if a shell sits proud. If the FTF is because the lifter does not fully lift the shell, it’s cause there is too much friction on the pivot block.

The lifter legs need to be spread apart a bit so it pivots freely. Hope this helps and if you are not super mechanical take a few good cell phone pics first so you can put things back the right way.