Anyone have experience with Chiappa Takedown?

Chiappa, Marlin, Mossberg and non-Rossi Manufactured Pumas plus anything else with a leveraction.
Wakefieldad
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Anyone have experience with Chiappa Takedown?

Post by Wakefieldad »

I have a Rossi 92 stainless in 357 that I slicked up thanks to Steve's Gunz video, but now I'm being vexed with the desire to get the Taylor's Chiappa Alaskan Takedown in 357. There's just something about the idea of a takedown that makes me want it. But at around $1300 it's a steep price for something with not much internet feedback. They do seem to sell it as fast as it comes in since every time I ask Taylor's about it they said they don't have any in stock. Does anyone have personal experience with any of the Chiappa Alaskan Takedowns, regardless of caliber?
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Re: Anyone have experience with Chiappa Takedown?

Post by mr surveyor »

I wish I could say I have had personal experience with the "take down". The take down models in most everything have always caught my attention as I've always liked to make things as compact as possible.

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Re: Anyone have experience with Chiappa Takedown?

Post by Archer »

I own one of the Winchester 1886 takedowns.
Can't really comment much on the Taylor's conversions.
They look nice on the net.
It isn't exactly something I MUST have however.
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Re: Anyone have experience with Chiappa Takedown?

Post by Wakefieldad »

Well, I broke down and bought a Chiappa 16" Alaskan Takedown in 357 at a gun show last month. The decision was made after I worked the action and found it to be extremely smooth. Smoother and lighter than my worked on stainless Rossi (via Stevesgunz' dvd instruction). I'm quite happy with my Rossi so the fact that the Chiappa had a slightly better action off the rack brand new was encouraging. Trigger pull was heavier than what I remember my R92 was out of the box, and certainly very much heavier than the R92 post trigger job. The Skinner rear sight and FO front sight is of course a huge improvement over the R92's.

I really liked the look of the octagonal barrel on the Chiappa, but boy does it add weight. With a 16" barrel the thing is noticeably heavier than the 20" round barrel R92. The takedown and put back together was very tight initially. I asked the sales person to take it down and put it back together to make sure that function worked before I bought it, and it was so tight that both sales people behind the table couldn't take it apart, and several bystanders couldn't either until a very beefy guy managed to do it. After a couple of times twisting it off and on, the takedown action seemed to loosen up. When I got home it took me a bit of effort getting it off the first time, so I put some oil on the threads and that helped a lot. After one session of shooting around 50 rounds, the takedown and put back together was much easier.

It shot okay at the 25 yard indoor range. The groupings from shooting off the bench were a little to the right and low at that distance. Low I can understand since 25 yards is probably closer than what it was zeroed at. It shooting right was similar to my R92. So I don't know if that's indicative of me or of both the guns. I drifted the Skinner sight a bit to the left when I got home. The Skinner sight was pretty easy to drift with punch and hammer, unlike my R92 which refuses to cooperate in that department and I have to use Kentucky Windage instead. I'll see if I drifted it the right amount at the next range session where I'll ask to use the 50 yard indoor range. There's no outdoor range in my area to extend the shooting farther out so I'll have to be satisfied with punching paper at that distance.

Oh, and I went on ebay and bought the bag/backpack that comes with the Ruger 10/22 takedown to use with this Chiappa Takedown. It fits the bag great.
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Re: Anyone have experience with Chiappa Takedown?

Post by akuser47 »

Nice got pics?
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Re: Anyone have experience with Chiappa Takedown?

Post by Wakefieldad »

No pics unfortunately. I've tried taking pics of long guns before and find it really difficult to take a good clear shot because they're so long and I have to stand relatively far away. Lighting in the house also really sucks and I don't really want to take the pics outside due to possible nervous nelly neighbors.
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Re: Anyone have experience with Chiappa Takedown?

Post by Powderburns »

I had one with octagon barrel in 45 colt. It was a beautiful looking gun with nice case hardening. The takedown was nice/tight and worked well. The bore was filthy but the action was pretty clean when I unboxed it. After cleaning I took it too the range and it functioned flawlessly with both Keith style SWC and RFN reloads. It was nice and accurate as well with my old reloads. I found it was a little barrel heavy for my taste with the octagon barrel. I put it back in the safe after one range session for awhile. I took it out a few weeks later for another range trip and I noticed my butt stock had developed a nice wide crack in the wood starting from the butt plate heading towards the tang. Looks like the lower butt plate screw was not pre-drilled and the wood split from the pressure. I sold it to a guy that had the same one in 44 mag and didn't care about the split. He loved his version in 44 mag but stated their was a little play in his takedown but shot fine. I would get another one if I could find one with a round barrel. it was a good looking rifle and shot well.
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Re: Anyone have experience with Chiappa Takedown?

Post by Wakefieldad »

I'm finding that I'm not liking the weight of the octagonal barrel either. Everything else about it I love, but that one aspect of it being barrel heavy does knock its shooting experience down some. So far I like shooting my R92 better just because I can wield it quicker. Maybe if it had been a 44 Mag I would appreciate having the octagonal barrel more.
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Re: Anyone have experience with Chiappa Takedown?

Post by Archer »

Wakefieldad wrote:I'm finding that I'm not liking the weight of the octagonal barrel either. Everything else about it I love, but that one aspect of it being barrel heavy does knock its shooting experience down some. So far I like shooting my R92 better just because I can wield it quicker. Maybe if it had been a 44 Mag I would appreciate having the octagonal barrel more.
I'm going to doubt it.

I was pretty excited when my local gunshop got a couple R92 Octagonal .44 Mags in. I'd been wanting one for a while and almost ordered one but they weren't in stock at the distributers at the time I was willing to drop the change. The shop got one each SS and Blue and I helped unpack them and wipe out the grease inside and out. I cooled a bit to them partly because of the shelf price and partly because of the fact they were pretty darned heavy. The barrel weight threw me off.

I've had a 94 Winchester 24" Legacy .44 Mag for 17 years or so and I like it a lot. I started thinking instead of the 24" Octagonal I should be looking at a 20" RB. I was getting ready to pull one down off the rack when the fellow who had purchased the SS Octagonal made me an offer on it I couldn't turn down. Seems it recoiled enough he had no urge to hold onto it.

I found it nice enough but still found myself wanting the 20" RB. I found it easier to justify getting a R92 20" RB .357 Mag than another .44 Mag however. Matching my revolvers in the caliber since I was lacking a carbine or rifle for them while I felt I had the .44s covered. Nice fast handling little carbine.

I found myself still wanting the .44 RB 20". Just happened that the shop got one in at what was to me a rather exceptional price and were willing to let me have it at a good price so I picked it up. Don't have any intentions to get rid of the 24" but I find the 20" to be just about perfect for a gun you'd have to carry through the woods or the like. In the pistol calibers they still don't recoil enough to notice and you can shoot them all day without doing yourself damage. There's a reason the most common 94 Winchesters produced for 100 years were round barreled carbines in spite of the larger recoil of the .30-30 they were most commonly produced in.

Now in the 1886 Winchester TD in .45-70 I don't find myself wishing it were a round barrel. Then again, I'm not hunting with it. While I find the 26" Octagonal fine I might feel different were I carrying it around in search of deer. Ranch Dog has mentioned on more than one occasion he found the Rio Grande to be quite nice in large part because of the slim profile and lighter weight.
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Re: Anyone have experience with Chiappa Takedown?

Post by cruzerbotz »

I had seen one in 45 LC about six months ago. It seemed pretty nice. The gun shop wanted a lot more than the $1200 for it. I did find a Winchester 94 Trails End Takedown in 30-30 and got it. The takedown is the same as the Taylors. The Winchester is an AE and was drilled and tapped for the Weave sight bases. Only problem is the front base hangs over the barrel about 3/4" and you can't take it down unless you work on the base. I filed it for a while and got it to work. Then, got another set of the mounts and filed a new slot between the mounting screws. Then, cut it off and filed the end smooth. Now, it works really well.

The takedown mechanism is the John Browning design. One other neat thing about it is you can unload the rifle by unscrewing the magazine and don't have to cycle all the rounds through it.
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