Chiappa 9mm M1 Carbine Review

Nope bought it from out west here but at the 419.95 price. Just waiting at the post office since yesterday for me to pick up. Darn 12 hr shifts
 
Hard to say. I saw one dealer with a large stack of mags priced at $70 but one ProMag in the box. However, the generally accepted reply is that they are ordered that way. Reminds me of the Norinco pistol saga, which is probably what you are alluding to.
 
Can anyone tell me how this rifle compares with the Sub 2000, IE a side by side review.

They do sound more or less, like the same level of quality.
 
FYI, one thing I've learned about these rifles is that they don't like weak hand loads. The hotter the load the better they cycle. At first I thought it was the bullet shape but I can admit when I am wrong and I was. Powder charge is everything, no lite loads unless you want FTF's. The bolt must come all the way to the rear or it will ride over the next round causing FTF's. I've had no further issues since loading hotter hand loads and using factory rounds. Does anyone know how to safely lighten the trigger on these rifles?
 
Well finally got to the post office and took a trip down the garbage strewn Tower road area. All I had was some American Eagle 147 gr TMJ (total metal jacket, says so on the package) loaded up the 5 rd pro mag and away it went. No stoppages (no failure to feed,extract,etc) Only thing was it liked to eject straight up and onto my slightly balding head. Not every one but most. Also found the front dove tail on the left side dented downwards so would be pretty hard to put a optic on it without straightening. But so far happy (but sad, no tinkering needed) Ordered some 92 mags so we'll see how it works with them.
Now its time for the initial take down and lube
 
Well, clean up completed no surprises. Trigger area was relatively clean couple blasts with compressed air and all was good. Trigger pull is terrible just like my savage model 24 in 3030/20 gauge. Once I find some decent stones I will rectify that situation. Greased up all the contact areas after cleaning. Only wonky thing I found was that the top hand guard was being hit by the action lever bushing every time the action was actuated. Found that the 2nd rib had rub marks on it so its was cleaned up with a sharp implement and now all is well. Now waiting impatiently for the Beretta 92 mags.
 
Hi Guys. My Mec Gar 92 mags arrived today and I noticed that the mag body was indented as the same place as the Pro Mag that the rifle came with. So I thought what the heck are my new mags pinned to 5 as well? Tried the full ten in the Mec Gar mags, no problem. Then tried ten rds in the Pro Mag and again no problem. Damn, wish I would have tried this the day I went to test fire. Oh well live and learn.

How's every one else doing with their carbines? Been pretty quite after the big blast of posts.
 
I observed that the thing works best when the mag inserted on closed bolt and then bolt racked aggressively. Otherwise the first round may hang up. The trigger is horrendously heavy. The sight is dialed in at higher range than you want to hit.
 
2nd ya on that trigger pull. YUCK. Guess I'm going to look to ebay for some stones to do a polish job or maybe I'll try the old tooth paste trick first. Nothing to loose that way. Damn talked myself into a job tonight.
 
I wanted to see if there was a quick way to mount a red dot. I found a TuffForce mount and thought that I could mount a red dot AND still use the iron sights. I was correct. The front blades appears shrouded in a triangle. It's a perfect fit, really. So one of those mini red dots will be mounted as I find one. Purists will hate it, but it's light and cheap and is quick to mount. The stock is plastic already. How pure can that be? In fact, the machining on the bottom of this mount nearly mirrors the profile of the 'bayonet' mount. You line the two up and tighten the Allen key bolts. This might be the first mod for this piece for all I know.

M1Carbine_zps5025a7d0.jpg
 
Like the price. Once you mount the red dot let us know if it feels ungainly. Gonna loose that nice pure look though. Hey I finished cleaning up the trigger parts. Terrible burrs on the sear, did the old fingernail test and felt some dragging so I went and got my jewelers magnifying headpiece and had a look. Yep bad one on top and the face. Cleaned the sear up with a small file and just look the burrs off no other metal was removed. I knew from looking at the other M1 carbines that I have, that you cannot to a "trigger job" on a carbine without some danger of doubles etc. The proven way is to swap parts around or look for a carbine with a smooth/well worn trigger and swap the parts over. Since all my M1 carbine parts are not with me anymore I have too live with what I have, in fact I can't even compare to see if USGI parts can be substituted.

Now its time to check out the Mec Gar 92 mags from Northern Republic Magazine. And set up the sights.

Trigger and rifle are back together. Trigger is cleaner and a little lighter so maybe going to have to wear it in and see if it gets better over time.
 
My brother and I went to the range with his new Chiappa 9mm M1 yeterday. Many FTFs with reloads, Winchester and Remmington ammo 115, 124, and 147 grain bullets and COALs of 1.1 to 1.16 inches. We were using the Pro Mag that came with the gun. We went into the store and asked for a Beretta mag which they had. I asked for a dial caliper and measured the width of the feed lips at the top of the mag and the Pro Mag was 0.15" narrower and you could see that it pinched the round tightly on its way to the chamber. Also the first round was always a FTF.

I took the Pro Mag apart and cut one coil off the spring and I opened up the feed lips to the Beretta spec - meatball surgery agreed. Then we loaded up the mag with 10 rounds and had one FTF. Tweaked the mag one more time by opening up the front of the feed lips a bit more and we ripped through 10 round mags flawlessly. Several mags that is.

We went back to my shop and pulled the mags apart and I showed my brother how poorly the Pro Mag is made, the feed lips have a heavy burr on the inside, you could cut yourself on the burr. This burr is digging into the brass casing and holding it up. We use rifflers to remove the burrs and then polished the feed lips carefully. The Beretta was much better but still improved with a bit of fettling and spring coil removal.

Now the gun runs beautifully through 10 rounds as fast as you can pull the trigger. Perhaps this will help others. It is a nice gun!

$85.00 for a Beretta magazine - gag, choke!
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom