citadel m1 carbine in 22 lr ????

[mac1911]

Cabelas, maybe some stores have them ?
4 hour round trip for me to Cabelas so I quess I will wait to see if they turn up at bass pro.
I am in mass and the bass pro here will most likely not sell this evil assault weapon here in mass.

[chucksm1carbone]

I bought mine at cabela's a week ago for 299.00 plus tax shoots great and love it.

---------- Post added at 01:37 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:33 AM ----------

Cabela's has them in michigan for 299.00 plus tax I bought mine their and love it nice wood compaired it to my inlands veryy close more so than a 1022 conversion or erma m1 I have already fired 300 rounds thru it with no problems to speak off.

[hegunshop]

I finally bought one even though I am a dealer I resorted to the retail route to get one as I love carbines and wanted to see what this puppy was all about. I have read both positive and negative about them but was dying to see for myself. First I got it and the stock was beat up from poor handling by the dealer but had it not had the bumps and burses it would have been a very nice stock. Yes it has a lot of plastic on it but being the lover of carbines I am and having a raft of carbine parts I went to work to make a cool gun of it. First it does drop right into a real M1 Carbine stock and you must change the recoil lug screw and I changed out the recoil lug as I had one to fit the original stock a bit better not that it really needed it. After that the hand guard fit perfect and the plastic bayonet lug went on perfect. I did not like the rear plastic sight but given a 400.00 gun it is suitable but not as cool as a real M1 Carbine sight. The dove tail on the receiver is very slightly different than the real carbine but I took a real rear sight type III and ground the bottom face that goes against the receiver down just a touch and just like the real one went right to left and tapped it in with a wooden dowel without breaking anything. Once centered I staked it like the original and poof a perfect adjustable rear sight. As I have the stamps I put the P on the bottom and the Winchester cartouche on the side of it just for giggles and that dressed it up. Now my buddy and I who are both 22 nuts decided to tackle the front end of it. The barrel is about 1/32 smaller than the M1 Carbine is so we took a real Type III barrel band and cut a bushing for both that and the front sight. They barrel band works perfect but the front sight does not have the keyway so the only solution was to drill and tap an old original front sight with a small set screw. Now you have a really really cool 22 Cal M1 style carbine. I am sure I would enjoy the gun right out of the box but half the fun is in tinkering and making things the way you want them. I now have a fully adjustable rear sight for better accuracy and a solid metal front end that looks more original. We also ordered reproduction WW II era sling, magazine holder, and oiler for them. Yep I know that I have more in the gun than it is worth but sometimes having fun is worth money to. Now as far as functional, there is no difference between this M1 and any other semi auto on the market. It shoots fine and does not jam up. That is about all I can say at this point as I have only been able to shoot it in my indoor range which is only about 50 feet. But having the real rear sight I am convinced added a great amount of accuracy to the gun as the plastic is held in by a very small set screw and the whole thing just felt loose to me. As a dealer I have 5 on order when my distributor gets them and 4 are spoken for so far so they will be a good item for resale but I would not expect people to go to the extreme that we did on ours. I bought one of the new old stock birch stocks off of EBay for 145.00 and the rest was parts from the shop and about 50.00 for the soft parts. I did not like the Birch finish so put a little stain on it and Tung oil for some luster and it really make it into a nice looking and functional gun. The magazines are designed to look like the real M1 and they did a good job of that, but have been unable to find spares yet. So if you are considering one it is what it is a 399.00 gun and for that you get pretty much all that you pay for. To go to the extreme we did with it is only for someone who wants to keep the gun for years and have a blast with it. Only caution is make sure the vendor you get your gun from did not beat the heck out of the stocks like he did these. A real shame as had that not been done the stocks are very serviceable.

[hegunshop]

If you do an Internet search Buds Gun shop had 4 and I bought 2 at 349.00 each, But make sure you ask the condition of the stock as mine were dented pretty good but I have a whole bunch of M1 Carbine stocks and they do drop directly into a real M1 Stock despite what you hear. The picture above is one in a new old stock M1 Carbine stock and it is great. The pic is after the rear sight mod but before the bayonet mount mod. Anyone come up with a place that has extra mags please yell as a lot of folks would like them I am sure.

[hegunshop]

Here are some pics of the Citadel M1-22 after a total makeover. I think it would have to be one of the most accurate looking M1 Carbines in 22 Cal out there. What a blast to shoot and cheap. The money I spent on the makover will soon be regained with the cost savings in ammo as I shoot it a lot plus I can shoot the 22 easy in my downstairs range. Having a real metal sight like I said above is the number one reason for the makeover as the plastic sight just did not stay put. the only trick is the front sight and having to fit a bushing to the step up barrel they put on the Citadel. I do not understand the logic behind the step other than to hold the plastic sight in place but the set screw seems do do ok for that so seems like extra machine work for no real gain. However that said where it does step up is almost the same as the real M1 Barrel and I found I could do without the bushing in the barrel band as there was such a small gap it did not matter. I know I spent a lot on this project but just wanted to show you can have some fun doing makovers on guns like this that are close but just not quite there. Now I have just about as close as you can get.
Attachment 34537 Attachment 34538 Attachment 34539

[USGI]

I was in an Oregon Big 5 Sporting Goods store today, and noticed they had the Chiappa 22 LR M1 Carbine in stock. It was $349 and had a black synthetic stock, rather than wood. I asked the clerk if they were available with wood, and he didn't know - they had just received the first ones and had synthetic stocks. - Bob

[browningautorifle]

Remains to be seen if we can get them here in Canada. I'd like one.

[hegunshop]

I was in an Oregon Big 5 Sporting Goods store today, and noticed they had the Chiappa 22 LR M1 Carbine in stock. It was $349 and had a black synthetic stock, rather than wood. I asked the clerk if they were available with wood, and he didn't know - they had just received the first ones and had synthetic stocks. - Bob

They will be available in wood eventually but right now I guess they are trying to pump out the black synthetic ones. However I was able to buy 2 wood stock ones from a gunshop like I said below the stocks were beaten up really bad by the dealer as you could tell it was not shipping damage. The stock quality prior to damage was very good and fit a real M1 Carbine perfectly. I noticed that they have made one change in the past few weeks. The first ones I got had metal recoil lugs but the last ones I just got with the synthetic stocks had plastic recoil lugs. A simple drop in replacment lug with a reproducion one off ebay for a few bucks. I have well over 500 rounds through the 2 of them and no problems so far. The conversion to original metal sights while more money was well worth it, as it stays dead on all the time. I have not tried the synthetic stock on a real M1 yet but see no reason why it will not work. I just like the feel of the wood stock gun better. I was going to sell my 2nd one but after all the fun with the first decided to hang on to it and do the same conversion which came out just as cool. All in all I think they would have really been a smash hit if they would have gone just a few more percent more to put the more original parts on the gun and they
would had produced a real hit. All the plastic while keeping the gun cheap also makes it look cheap. Removing all that stuff and going back with all metal is a lot of fun.

[USGI]

Jim Mock's pages has good info and pictures on these rifles. Anyone considering one should give them a read. You can get there by following the link to the Bavarian Carbines in the sticky's at the top of this forum. Big 5 has them listed in their sale flier for $299 this week. - Bob

[crsoll]

Removing all that stuff and going back with all metal is a lot of fun.[/QUOTE]

I thought I'd have a go at one of these too. Obtained the metal handguard, front band and spring, sight and flash hider from Numrichs. Stripped back the stock so it looked well used and grimy as some of the original stain was too stubborn to remove and finished in boiled linseed oil. The flash hider is a repro and is brazed to the new foresight. Because the original is a larger diameter than the Chiappa (Citidel) barrel I ran a piece of old barrel through both pieces, brazed them together and then bored out to the smaller dimension. Also counter bored the sight for about 15mm so it sits back over the barrel for strength. A brass shim fitted into the front band takes up the slack here, since the Chiappa barrel is slightly smaller.Attachment 47201Attachment 47202Attachment 47203Attachment 47200

The handguard needed the flap bent out for two reasons, firstly the clearance for the slide was minimal, and secondly it strengthens up an unsupported area nicely, a bit like the mini 14 handguard. The other thing to note is the sling bar (oiler) needs to be reduced in the middle to take the sling, as the Chiappa stock sling slot is too narrow to accommodate a standard oiler and sling. I used a bit of Tufnel to look like Bakelite.

Finally a coat of Dura coat in Light French Green to simulate the green parkerising, and a burnishing of the high spots with steel wool to make it look well used. This now feels so much heavier and genuine with the extra weight added to the barrel, and the plastic look has totally disappeared.

Now my wife wants it for Christmas...............