Chiappa 9mm M1 Carbine

[browningautorifle]

They looked very solid and felt that way too...

[Sentryduty]

Today I seen some high quality photos of the Chiappa M1-9 psoted by the Canadian importer and I had a thought, which I will get to in a moment.

During my search for a Non-Restricted M1 Carbine, these rifles popped up as an option, I had dismissed them based on the magazine selection and apparent recycling of components from their M1-22 offering. Good enough for a .22LR yes, but not in my opinion good enough for a 9mm. I kept looking and gave this a pass.

Back to that thought...

Seeing the photos of the top of this gun made me ask, "what is that monstrosity on the slide!?"

This:



I thought about it for a moment and realized that this gun is almost certainly straight blow-back and that cast anvil of a block of metal is to provide mass to slow the action cycling. This gun appears to be nothing more than an upsize of the M1-22 which does not have a gas system, and as such is only a visual copy of the real M1 Carbine.

While blowback is ideal for a light recoiling .22, and other dedicated firearms I personally think that using blowback in this example, which attempts replicate a gas operated gun, is being cheap and lazy.

[browningautorifle]

I have a feeling since some M1 carbines can be stripped by just pulling up and out on the op handle, this one doesn't even have the lug to hole it in. They probably made them to just slide back on that rail set...and it's not a rotating bolt, is it? Just a straight blow back so that's the lug set up on top. I'd still like to wring it out and see...

[imarangemaster]

They needed additional mass for the blowback action to cycle property. Early ones looked like a standard M1 Carbine (sort of) withe block on one side. They had reliability and breakage issues, so redesigned it with the ugly, massive op rod.

[shadycon]

Makes for a "GOOD" selling point. " The ugly M1", be the first on the block to have one!!

[INLAND44]

I'd rather have a Kel Tec SUB 2000. I recently got one in .40 and it's a terrific carbine. Small, light, folds up, comes in several magazine-types (Glock, Beretta, S&W). But mainly, designed from scratch to be a pistol-caliber carbine. There was one M1 Carbine variant that was interesting - in .45 Winchester Magnum!!!

[Sentryduty]

They probably made them to just slide back on that rail set...and it's not a rotating bolt, is it?

I know my M1-22 is not a rotating bolt, and since the receiver appears to be the exact same I would assess there are no locking lugs and the bolt does not rotate

---------- Post added at 08:20 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:17 AM ----------

I'd rather have a Kel Tec SUB 2000. I recently got one in .40 and it's a terrific carbine.

I agree compared to this Chiappa offering, I have one as well (9mm Glock mag) and aside from a few minor break in issues it has been a handy little gun. For exhibition plinking it can be made to tag 16x16" steel plates with boring regularity.

[Sleeplessnashadow]

http://www.m1carbinesinc.com/carbine_chiappa9mm.html