Here's the good, the bad and the ugly.
I bought this combination rifle shotgun at Bud's Gun Shop's retail location in Lexington for $284.
I had looked at the Savage model 42 previously and found it somewhat lacking.
The Chiappa Double Badger is a fine looking firearm. .22lr on top, .410 full choke under, break action, with a wood stock and fore end.
I understand that it also comes chambered in 22wmr over .410 and that a .22wmr over 20ga is out or in the works...but this review is of the chambering 22lr over .410 bore.
The breach is opened by lever action, and that same lever action also retracts the firing pins and automatically cocks both barrels, so the weapon is LIVE as soon as the loaded action is closed. My preference would be exposed hammers, but, this is what it is, and as long as you ALWAYS treat it as being a live firearm like we all were taught, it should never be a problem.
The first time I took the gun out, I was disappointed.
The chamber for the .22lr barrel had a metal burr that made inserting a round more than a little more than difficult.
I took it home and filed the burr off with a chainsaw file.
Needless to say, at this point I was thinking this might be a lemon...there is always a risk when investing in a lower priced firearm, especially one from a smaller firearm company.
So it was with some trepidation that I returned to the firing range for round two.
To say I was pleasantly surprised is an understatement.
The .22lr is dead on accurate shot after shot.
^^^ The big holes are .410 sluggers. We'll get to that in a minute.
I bought this combination rifle shotgun at Bud's Gun Shop's retail location in Lexington for $284.
I had looked at the Savage model 42 previously and found it somewhat lacking.
The Chiappa Double Badger is a fine looking firearm. .22lr on top, .410 full choke under, break action, with a wood stock and fore end.
I understand that it also comes chambered in 22wmr over .410 and that a .22wmr over 20ga is out or in the works...but this review is of the chambering 22lr over .410 bore.
The breach is opened by lever action, and that same lever action also retracts the firing pins and automatically cocks both barrels, so the weapon is LIVE as soon as the loaded action is closed. My preference would be exposed hammers, but, this is what it is, and as long as you ALWAYS treat it as being a live firearm like we all were taught, it should never be a problem.
The first time I took the gun out, I was disappointed.
The chamber for the .22lr barrel had a metal burr that made inserting a round more than a little more than difficult.
I took it home and filed the burr off with a chainsaw file.
Needless to say, at this point I was thinking this might be a lemon...there is always a risk when investing in a lower priced firearm, especially one from a smaller firearm company.
So it was with some trepidation that I returned to the firing range for round two.
To say I was pleasantly surprised is an understatement.
The .22lr is dead on accurate shot after shot.
^^^ The big holes are .410 sluggers. We'll get to that in a minute.
I was extremely pleased with the open sights, but it is drilled for a scope rail if you are looking for longer range accuracy.
The .410 barrel was also indexed well and shot to the point of aim of the sights. I patterned it out to 40 yards with 3 inch #5, #6, #7.5 and #8 shot. Beyond 40 yards the pattern opened up to the point that hand sized voids were a regular occurrence, even with #8 shot.
From 20 to 35 yards the pattern was excellent with all shot sizes, with 35-40 yards being the maximum effective range in my patterning.
I wish I had taken more pictures. I took 3 but only one is the pattern visible.
Hit the center of the patterning paper with every shot.
The sluggers, on the other hand, were all over the place @25 yards as you can see in the image above. I only tried one type, Remington 2.5 inch, and it could be that this firearm just didn't like them.
Both triggers were light and crisp. I didn't measure the trigger pull but my guess would be 3-4 pounds for the .22lr trigger and 4-5 pounds for the .410 trigger.
Bottom line...I received a far superior firearm than I paid for...and that will make anyone happy...and there may be a Chiappa Little Badger 22mag in my future.
Hope this helps anyone that is looking for reviews of the Chiappa Double Badger. I found very little by way of reviews before I purchased this one. If I remember anything that I forgot in this review, I'll add it in an additional post.
For you non-USMBers, you may wonder why I posted this review here, and not on one of the big firearm, hunting, shooting sites.
Well, I belong to a lot of them...but I post here regularly and rarely if ever post on firearm sites. Here, you can see I'm a real person who has posted here for years. Plus, if I can drive a little traffic to my internet home, that's a bonus too. We are something of a family here at USMB..a somewhat dysfunctional family that fights a lot, but a family just the same, so take a look around and see if USMB might be as good fit for you as it is for me.
I will subscribe to this thread, so if you have any questions, post them below and I'll do my best to answer them.
The .410 barrel was also indexed well and shot to the point of aim of the sights. I patterned it out to 40 yards with 3 inch #5, #6, #7.5 and #8 shot. Beyond 40 yards the pattern opened up to the point that hand sized voids were a regular occurrence, even with #8 shot.
From 20 to 35 yards the pattern was excellent with all shot sizes, with 35-40 yards being the maximum effective range in my patterning.
I wish I had taken more pictures. I took 3 but only one is the pattern visible.
Hit the center of the patterning paper with every shot.
The sluggers, on the other hand, were all over the place @25 yards as you can see in the image above. I only tried one type, Remington 2.5 inch, and it could be that this firearm just didn't like them.
Both triggers were light and crisp. I didn't measure the trigger pull but my guess would be 3-4 pounds for the .22lr trigger and 4-5 pounds for the .410 trigger.
Bottom line...I received a far superior firearm than I paid for...and that will make anyone happy...and there may be a Chiappa Little Badger 22mag in my future.
Hope this helps anyone that is looking for reviews of the Chiappa Double Badger. I found very little by way of reviews before I purchased this one. If I remember anything that I forgot in this review, I'll add it in an additional post.
For you non-USMBers, you may wonder why I posted this review here, and not on one of the big firearm, hunting, shooting sites.
Well, I belong to a lot of them...but I post here regularly and rarely if ever post on firearm sites. Here, you can see I'm a real person who has posted here for years. Plus, if I can drive a little traffic to my internet home, that's a bonus too. We are something of a family here at USMB..a somewhat dysfunctional family that fights a lot, but a family just the same, so take a look around and see if USMB might be as good fit for you as it is for me.
I will subscribe to this thread, so if you have any questions, post them below and I'll do my best to answer them.
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