Home Forums Lever Action Central Rimfire Levers Chiappa LA322 22LR Lever Action Rifle

Just saw one of these for sale pretty reasonable. What caught my eye was the resemblance to Marlin 39 and the receiver was color case hardened, looks like a real rifle not plated zinc. Anyone have any experience with Chiappa? Their .22 pistols are spoken highly.

http://www.chiappafirearms.com/product/2675/images

That is a good looking .22. No experience though.

I've been trying to find out more about them, too. Good looking little rascals.

Think in terms of global competition and reputation. Foreign dollars trump US dollars in "value", and how do they rate on the internet searches such as Google?

I don't think anyone knows yet, I've got inquiries going on, over on rimfirecentral, but no one's answered yet, and I didn't see one at the NRA Meeting last month in Indy. I've yet to find anyone who's actually GOT one, to see what they think of it.

Color-casehardened receiver, walnut stock, but a kind of wonky front sight has me troubled. They have their own color-casehardening entity, it's not farmed out.
Their other guns look pretty good, and get good reviews elsewhere, especially the 1887 Winchester and '92 Winchester copies.
I've been nosing around since seeing it in their catalog, it's got me intrigued, especially with Marlin on the ropes quality-wise now.

Glen read that stock description closely. it reads walnut finished hardwood stock. i found one listing where it actualy list it as birch. i was going to maybe order one from the gunshop i use but after looking into it some more i want to wait until someone else gets one and shoots it for a while. i found some not too friendly reviews on some of their other firearms in my search efforts back this spring.

I have one of their 1873-22 Puma 22LR sixguns and it's rock solid. What "wonky" front sight are you referring to? It's a simple hooded front sight just like on any other 22 rifle. The rest of it looks like they kipped the plans for the Marlin 39A after the patent expired and made their own.

The Marlin patents expired over 100 years ago - also it doesn't look all that much like a Marlin on the inside -


Check out the length of the loading port - this gun may actually handle longer cartridges than the Long Rifle.

That would be nice if there was a .22WMR or .17HMR model.

If you look closely at the front sight, there are mold lines on it. I think it's plastic, which I am morally opposed to, on a leveraction rifle.
I have their catalog, and it's more prevalent there in the photo.

I have held one at Shedhorn Sports in Ennis, MT. I will take a pass at even half the price.

In my brief encounter, these are my impressions:
The case coloring looked to be painted on, and poorly done. The fit an finish left a LOT to be desired. The action was stiff and halting. It seemed to me a poorly executed Marlin copy, with very little mechanical or internal similarities at all.

It could shoot and feed great, but I will not be the one reporting on it.

Best of luck to the lucky guy that tries one out!

I looked at one at Whittaker's on Wednesday. Apparently, they've made some improvements to them since this thread was visited last.

The one I looked at on Wednesday was slicker than any of the many, many Henrys on other racks, and it was MUCH smoother than the Browning BL-22 I also fondled. While some folks didn't like the color-casehardened receiver, I didn't think it looked too bad up close. Again, it was a lot nicer than the Henry's painted receivers.
Wood, Henry and Browning beat the Chiappa hands down, the beechwood on the rifle wasn't done well at all, poorly finished, but easily re-done if so desired. The sights were quite possibly worse than a Daisy BB gun, awfully coarse and crude, but the rest of the metalwork seemed pretty good.

I kinda liked it, but opted to buy a Smith M&P 22C, which is pretty nice for a plastic pistol.

Glen i wonder if the Marlin 39A stocks would swap out on those rifles since it sure seems to be a bit of a copy of one? any thoughts on that possibility?

Dunno, Jim, I've never had a 39M in hand , but especially next to a Chiappa to compare them. It probably wouldn't be too big of a deal to whittle out a stock out of walnut, if you're handy with wood.

From what I can gather, the insides of the LA-322 are more modular than anything else, nothing much like a Marlin inside. I'm tempted to buy one, just to find out.