I've been sort of on the hunt for a 9mm sub-gun/carbine on and off for the last year or so.
Some of the things that have thrown me off has been initial costs, quality issues and limited capacity (in some that are restricted to 5 rounds such as the Famae). Oddly enough, because most all of my shooting is done on a range, the restricted nature of some was an attribute that weighted very low on the scale with me.
Some of the front runners were the JR Carbine, the Theuron Defence Carbine and a Lone Wolf AR that takes Glock mags - all for the fact I have two Glocks (a 17 and a 21SF) and a host of magazines that I know to be cheap(er), abundant and extremely reliable.
I have over the years owned several copies of M1 carbines in .30 Cal, in some cases never shooting them due to their collectibility. A few years ago I purchased a decent '43 dated National Postal Meter example with the post WWII arsenal refurbishments. It shoots quite well as M1 carbines go so I graduated from spending roughly 30-35$ on 50 rounds of factory Winchester or Remington ammunition and started reloading for it. With a Sierra 110 FMJ over VV N110 with Winchester small rifle primers the M1 can print 10 round groups into about 3-4" at 100 yards. This is pretty decent by M1 standards especially considering it has it's original 43' dated inland marked barrel and a 7 lb trigger. At 5 lbs 71/2 oz., small size and very light recoil the M1 is a handy little rifle good for just about anyone. Some of the drawbacks being that ammunition (no, not that Tulla Cr*P) is a little expensive and sometimes a bit of a pain to source. While reloading is easy, sometimes sourcing the .308 bullets these use and the brass can be difficult as well. The majority of USGI examples are restricted, while some of the civilian models were not very well received due to quality control and poor reliability.
Compounding all of this is the fact M1s can be, and generally are, finicky with magazines.
Recently I've been narrowing my search for something non-restricted and something my two girls can handle (8 and 10 yrs old) for camping trips and impromptu range sessions.
Enter the Chiappa M1-9. I read about this thing a bit on this forum and others and never really gave it much pause until this past weekend when I handled one at Calgary Shooting Centre. A small statured 9mm carbine resembling an M1 that takes Beretta 92 magazines for under 500$ - that is a fairly good mix that got my impulse buy. As I was on my way to the outdoor range, and had some 9mm hand loads with me I figured I'd give it a whirl. I headed out to the range and promptly set up a target at the 100 yard point. As the ammo I had with me is a light 'production load' for my Glock, I was curious, but not overly optimistic on how it would perform with this stuff. Chiappa recommends 150-300 rounds [edit: read the manual again and it states 100-150 rounds] for a break in period (where presumably you can expect some grief until things get smoothed out).
The first 10 rounds fired without a hitch, but alas only one round on target (low to the right on an IPSC metric target).
Dialling it back to 50 yards, I fired the next 40 rounds getting the sights dialled for windage and elevation. The rifle had several stoppages per magazine due to rounds mis-feeding into the top of the chamber, but it generally printed 10 rounds 'minute of A zone' on an IPSC metric at 50 meters.
I fired a total of 100 rounds of hand loads (4.2 grains of Tightgroup over 124 Berry's, Federal primers, 1.15" oal) and had at least 2 dozen stoppages in that first range outing.
More to follow:
Some of the things that have thrown me off has been initial costs, quality issues and limited capacity (in some that are restricted to 5 rounds such as the Famae). Oddly enough, because most all of my shooting is done on a range, the restricted nature of some was an attribute that weighted very low on the scale with me.
Some of the front runners were the JR Carbine, the Theuron Defence Carbine and a Lone Wolf AR that takes Glock mags - all for the fact I have two Glocks (a 17 and a 21SF) and a host of magazines that I know to be cheap(er), abundant and extremely reliable.
I have over the years owned several copies of M1 carbines in .30 Cal, in some cases never shooting them due to their collectibility. A few years ago I purchased a decent '43 dated National Postal Meter example with the post WWII arsenal refurbishments. It shoots quite well as M1 carbines go so I graduated from spending roughly 30-35$ on 50 rounds of factory Winchester or Remington ammunition and started reloading for it. With a Sierra 110 FMJ over VV N110 with Winchester small rifle primers the M1 can print 10 round groups into about 3-4" at 100 yards. This is pretty decent by M1 standards especially considering it has it's original 43' dated inland marked barrel and a 7 lb trigger. At 5 lbs 71/2 oz., small size and very light recoil the M1 is a handy little rifle good for just about anyone. Some of the drawbacks being that ammunition (no, not that Tulla Cr*P) is a little expensive and sometimes a bit of a pain to source. While reloading is easy, sometimes sourcing the .308 bullets these use and the brass can be difficult as well. The majority of USGI examples are restricted, while some of the civilian models were not very well received due to quality control and poor reliability.
Compounding all of this is the fact M1s can be, and generally are, finicky with magazines.
Recently I've been narrowing my search for something non-restricted and something my two girls can handle (8 and 10 yrs old) for camping trips and impromptu range sessions.
Enter the Chiappa M1-9. I read about this thing a bit on this forum and others and never really gave it much pause until this past weekend when I handled one at Calgary Shooting Centre. A small statured 9mm carbine resembling an M1 that takes Beretta 92 magazines for under 500$ - that is a fairly good mix that got my impulse buy. As I was on my way to the outdoor range, and had some 9mm hand loads with me I figured I'd give it a whirl. I headed out to the range and promptly set up a target at the 100 yard point. As the ammo I had with me is a light 'production load' for my Glock, I was curious, but not overly optimistic on how it would perform with this stuff. Chiappa recommends 150-300 rounds [edit: read the manual again and it states 100-150 rounds] for a break in period (where presumably you can expect some grief until things get smoothed out).
The first 10 rounds fired without a hitch, but alas only one round on target (low to the right on an IPSC metric target).
Dialling it back to 50 yards, I fired the next 40 rounds getting the sights dialled for windage and elevation. The rifle had several stoppages per magazine due to rounds mis-feeding into the top of the chamber, but it generally printed 10 rounds 'minute of A zone' on an IPSC metric at 50 meters.
I fired a total of 100 rounds of hand loads (4.2 grains of Tightgroup over 124 Berry's, Federal primers, 1.15" oal) and had at least 2 dozen stoppages in that first range outing.
More to follow:
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Can you put a Glock mag up to it, and the bolt to see if it's possible? It might not be possible with the tight dimensions, however. Thoughts?
