The Chiappa dedicated .22LR upper is designed to fit onto the lower receiver of an AR15/M4 rifle and enable it to fire inexpensive .22LR ammunition.
I placed my order with Frontier Firearms on a Tuesday night and the item shipped on Wednesday. It arrived at my door the next Monday. (A note about the purchasing transaction: Although FF lists two phone numbers they were continually busy. However, buying through the web page was easy.)
My first impression was that it looks exactly like an AR upper. It includes a flash suppressor, high front sight, rounded M4-type hand guard, Picatinny rail for mounting a rear sight or optics, spring loaded dust flap, bolt release toggle, forward assist plunger, sling swivel and bayonet lug. The charging handle works the same as on the M4. No rear sight is included.
The finish is just slightly duller and rougher than my Norinco M4, but you would have to examine it very closely to notice the difference. The Chiappa also comes with a 28 round magazine, cleaning brush and a minimalist manual.
I pushed out the pins on the M4 and removed the original .223 upper. The Chiappa's holes lined up perfectly and the new receiver snapped snugly into place. I did notice later that removing it is slightly more difficult. With the original upper I can press the pins in with my thumbnail, grasp the head on the other side and pull them out. To dismount the Chiappa I had to press firmly on the pins with a little rod to push them through. They may loosen up a bit in time, but it's not a problem in any case.
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I also noticed two small differences between the .223 and .22 uppers. The .22 conversion magazines fit somewhat loosely. However, they stay in and they work. While I'm on this subject I'll note that the Chiappa magazine is very easy to load. The spring feels fairly soft and there is also a plastic load assist button on the follower. It is a little longer than you might expect, but Black Dog and Kel Tec magazines (and probably many others) are available if you must have a shorter one.
The other difference is the operation of the bolt release toggle. Pressing the bottom end of the lever on an M4 locks the bolt back in full open position. Pressing the top of the toggle then slams it closed. The Chiappa bolt doesn't lock until it's about .5 inch away from the chamber. Pressing the release end of the toggle doesn't really do anything at that point. (Neither does pressing the forward assist plunger - I assume it's there only for cosmetic purposes.)
Today I took it to the range to try it out. My intention was not to do a full performance test, but simply to zero a red dot and test out how various brands of ammunition cycled in the gun.
I loaded five rounds of CCI Blazer in the magazine, inserted it, set the selector switch to "semi", pulled the charger handle out and pressed it back. The gun was ready to fire. I had mounted a Vortex Sparc that had been previously zeroed on a S&W 15-22. Although the guns are similar in configuration, the Chiappa/M4 shot about 8 inches low and left, probably due to the sight being located in a different place on the rail. After about 20 rounds I had it zeroed at 25 yds and proceeded to try different ammo. The four kinds I used were:
CCI Blazer
Winchester 333
Federal 510 HV; and
American Eagle, 40 gr SP
Altogether I fired about 175 rounds. The CCI Blazer worked perfectly and would be my ammo of choice. The 333 was also good, with one or two minor jams. The Federal was acceptable, with a few cases failing to completely eject from the chamber area. The gun did not seem to like the American Eagle - both feeding and ejecting were sometimes a problem. The AE bullets are quite loosely crimped in their cases. I think that might be the issue. Some of my other semis (including the S&W) don't work well with it either, though it's good in a bolt action and my Ruger MKIII will digest it all day.) My testing was not very systematic, so regard these results as very preliminary.
Accuracy was acceptable. I only fired a few 10 round groups and they probably averaged about 1.75 inches. I wasn't trying very seriously and expect the gun would actually do better than this. Also, today for some reason I wasn't getting a well defined dot from the sight. It was smeared vertically and also slightly horizontally. This may have been my eyes, the lighting conditions or the fact that I had the 2x magnifier screwed in. In any case, it just wasn't a day for precision shooting. Another time I'll concentrate on that and I anticipate better results.
Bottom line is that I very much like the Chiappa upper. It fits the lower receiver well, functions as it's supposed to and is no pickier about ammunition than most .22 semi-autos. It's cost is fairly modest if you already have an AR15/M4 (and don't want to clog up your barrel and gas tube using a conversion unit.) The high capacity magazines also make it an attractive alternative to the S&W 15-22.
I placed my order with Frontier Firearms on a Tuesday night and the item shipped on Wednesday. It arrived at my door the next Monday. (A note about the purchasing transaction: Although FF lists two phone numbers they were continually busy. However, buying through the web page was easy.)
My first impression was that it looks exactly like an AR upper. It includes a flash suppressor, high front sight, rounded M4-type hand guard, Picatinny rail for mounting a rear sight or optics, spring loaded dust flap, bolt release toggle, forward assist plunger, sling swivel and bayonet lug. The charging handle works the same as on the M4. No rear sight is included.
The finish is just slightly duller and rougher than my Norinco M4, but you would have to examine it very closely to notice the difference. The Chiappa also comes with a 28 round magazine, cleaning brush and a minimalist manual.
I pushed out the pins on the M4 and removed the original .223 upper. The Chiappa's holes lined up perfectly and the new receiver snapped snugly into place. I did notice later that removing it is slightly more difficult. With the original upper I can press the pins in with my thumbnail, grasp the head on the other side and pull them out. To dismount the Chiappa I had to press firmly on the pins with a little rod to push them through. They may loosen up a bit in time, but it's not a problem in any case.
I also noticed two small differences between the .223 and .22 uppers. The .22 conversion magazines fit somewhat loosely. However, they stay in and they work. While I'm on this subject I'll note that the Chiappa magazine is very easy to load. The spring feels fairly soft and there is also a plastic load assist button on the follower. It is a little longer than you might expect, but Black Dog and Kel Tec magazines (and probably many others) are available if you must have a shorter one.
The other difference is the operation of the bolt release toggle. Pressing the bottom end of the lever on an M4 locks the bolt back in full open position. Pressing the top of the toggle then slams it closed. The Chiappa bolt doesn't lock until it's about .5 inch away from the chamber. Pressing the release end of the toggle doesn't really do anything at that point. (Neither does pressing the forward assist plunger - I assume it's there only for cosmetic purposes.)
Today I took it to the range to try it out. My intention was not to do a full performance test, but simply to zero a red dot and test out how various brands of ammunition cycled in the gun.
I loaded five rounds of CCI Blazer in the magazine, inserted it, set the selector switch to "semi", pulled the charger handle out and pressed it back. The gun was ready to fire. I had mounted a Vortex Sparc that had been previously zeroed on a S&W 15-22. Although the guns are similar in configuration, the Chiappa/M4 shot about 8 inches low and left, probably due to the sight being located in a different place on the rail. After about 20 rounds I had it zeroed at 25 yds and proceeded to try different ammo. The four kinds I used were:
CCI Blazer
Winchester 333
Federal 510 HV; and
American Eagle, 40 gr SP
Altogether I fired about 175 rounds. The CCI Blazer worked perfectly and would be my ammo of choice. The 333 was also good, with one or two minor jams. The Federal was acceptable, with a few cases failing to completely eject from the chamber area. The gun did not seem to like the American Eagle - both feeding and ejecting were sometimes a problem. The AE bullets are quite loosely crimped in their cases. I think that might be the issue. Some of my other semis (including the S&W) don't work well with it either, though it's good in a bolt action and my Ruger MKIII will digest it all day.) My testing was not very systematic, so regard these results as very preliminary.
Accuracy was acceptable. I only fired a few 10 round groups and they probably averaged about 1.75 inches. I wasn't trying very seriously and expect the gun would actually do better than this. Also, today for some reason I wasn't getting a well defined dot from the sight. It was smeared vertically and also slightly horizontally. This may have been my eyes, the lighting conditions or the fact that I had the 2x magnifier screwed in. In any case, it just wasn't a day for precision shooting. Another time I'll concentrate on that and I anticipate better results.
Bottom line is that I very much like the Chiappa upper. It fits the lower receiver well, functions as it's supposed to and is no pickier about ammunition than most .22 semi-autos. It's cost is fairly modest if you already have an AR15/M4 (and don't want to clog up your barrel and gas tube using a conversion unit.) The high capacity magazines also make it an attractive alternative to the S&W 15-22.
