Review: Chiappa 1911-22 .22LR 1911 style pistol

Today’s review is the Chiappa 1911-22, a gun modeled after the venerable 1911 Colt, but down scaled into a .22LR firing platform.

There are several versions; the difference is basically the finish. I am reviewing the “target” model. The gun comes with two (plastic) mags.

Chiappa 1911-22 Philosophy Of Use:

The idea behind the Chiappa 1911-22 (and others similar to it like the GSG/Sig Sauer 1911 .22LR) is to provide a “feel’s like a 1911” .22LR trainer. Now that you can find ammo again, .22LR is a TON cheaper to feed than a .45 ACP, and .22 is a much more manageable recoil load for people new to the platform to learn on.

Chiappa 1911-22 Design:

The Chiappa 1911-22 is designed to “look and feel” like a true 1911 but fire .22 rounds. The gun is of similar size and weight to a 1911 Colt (almost identical weight), with a similar thumb safety. The Chiappa does not have the grip safety of a 1911. Probably the biggest noticeable difference between the Chiappa 1911-22 and a “real” 1911 is that the grip is significantly thinner than the authentic firearm.

Tale Of The Tape:

Caliber: .22LR, as hot of rounds as you can find
Weight unloaded: 33 ounces
Barrel: 5 inches
Magazine: 10+1 rounds but God help you if you plan to use this as a carry gun
MSRP: $279
Street: $200-$229

Chiappa 1911-22 Build Quality:

Bad.

I mean… BAD.

The Chiappa 1911-22 is a $230 gun, so expectations are not high, but frankly this gun looks like it was thrown together by a pack of beagles… beagles that are less intelligent than normal.

The metal is unevenly finished, there are gaps where there shouldn’t be, and the gun has an overall feel of “Saturday Night Special…” No, I shouldn’t say that, I own a Phoenix Arms HP22a which has a lot nicer feel, fit and finish (and in fact which is superior to the Chiappa in every way). I could go on and on about what specifically is wrong with the gun’s finish, but there’s no point. Think “Daisy Red Rider” quality… the new ones, not the ones from the 1960’s.

Shooting the Chiappa 1911-22:

OK, I have to make a caveat here, I am going to give the shooting review in two parts. A member of our group purchased the Chiappa 1911-22 with the thought he would save money on ammo. It constantly jammed. By constantly, I mean every single round. Feeding problems, stove pipes, stuck in the chamber, you name it. He returned it to the dealer who sent it back to Chiappa.

Two months later it was returned “fixed”.

The Chiappa 1911-22 did perform better… jamming every third round is, in fact, a vast improvement over jamming every single round. That’s when he brought the gun to me, to see if I could do anything for it… he was so frustrated with it that he was about ready to throw it in the lake.

I did what I could to make it not jam all day long…

SO… here’s what I did. I buffed and polished EVERYTHING in the bullet path, the feed ramp, the back of the chamber, inside the chamber, everything. While I was at it I gave it a basic trigger job, buffing everything in there as well. I also replaced the stock recoil spring with one from my “box of springs” that had a bit less pressure on it, and I de-burred the recoil spring guide. I also polished the outside of the barrel bushing because it was “stupidly hard” to rotate and remove…

After all this work, we were able to get the gun to where the only malfunction it had was stovepipping, and with Mini Mags this occurred only one in about 40 rounds. We actually fired a box of 100 mini-mags to count how many stovepipes per hundred it would do… we made it all the way to 86 rounds before the first one hit, but then we got 3 in the last 14 rounds including the initial stovepipe.

OK, other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?

The gun is accurate enough, the sights are decent and easy to get a sight picture with. The gun consistently shot a sub 3-inch group at 25 yards when it fired and the trigger (stock) was “OK”. Trigger pull before the trigger polishing was 5.5 pounds. It was 3.2 pounds when I was done with it, almost too light for my taste.

Verdict:

The story I have given here is common, there have been lots of reports of this gun. My friend took the Chiappa 1911-22 back to the gun shop he bought it from and they told him the only reason they took it back in trade was because he had purchased it there.

The gun shop owner said that he had sold about 10 of the guns over the last year, and every single one of them had problems. The owner stated that the gun was going right to Gunbroker.com, he wasn’t selling it to any of his local customers. He also stated that he will never stock any of them again.

I wouldn’t touch a Chiappa 1911-22 with a 10 foot pole… even if there was a condom on the pole. It’s probably the worst modern firearm I have ever dealt with.

My friend, determined to find an inexpensive answer to his shooting practice, purchased a Sig Sauer 1911-22 and has had great success with it (it’s a re-badged GSG, but it’s a MUCH better gun).

If it were me, and I were looking for a 1911 trainer, I would go right strait to a Ruger Mark IV.