Home Forums Lever Action Central Lever Actions - General Curious about the Chiappa 18o4 Alaskan Takedown...

What can you tell me about it.?

" 18o4 "?? Don't you mean 1892?

I recently got one in .357 mag (with a 12" barrel- legal up here in Canada) but haven't had a chance to take it to the range yet. I've heard nearly all good things about them and my impression so far is that it's well made. Action out-of-the-box is really slick. I changed out the red rod in the FO sight for a green one because green seems to stand out better for my eyes. Also drilled out the .094 aperture to .154 as I found it a bit too small.

I'm not entirely "convinced" by the takedown feature. Not that it doesn't work- it does, very well, but it seems to me that you could take it down nearly as well by removing the tang screw and sliding the butt stock off. Of course, you need a screwdriver to do this (and maybe want to replace the slotted screw with hex head to reduce the chance of marring the slot) whereas the Chiappa has a folding lever on the mag tube. I've not heard any other comments about this, though, so definitely just my .02. In my case I doubt I'll need to take it down, as it's only 31" long.

Here's a recent comment on the .44 mag. version from someone on Cdn Gunnutz:

I am interested in these also. So far, I have only looked and handled in the store. My wife seems to like the 357 with the 16" barrel.

I seen a review on Gunblast I think it was not too long ago. I like it for an "around the farm" kinda gun. Stainless. Handy. I would be tempted to replace the wood with a nice piece of walnut though.

I would have a hard time choosing between the 357 and the 45. My outside packing pistol is a 357 Blackhawk, complete with cartridge belt, so I suppose that would make the most sense.

Gunblast's review (the one I checked) was Nov. 2013 and seemed pretty positive. The wood of the stock is pretty soft. Given that it's rubber-covered anyway, they could have used some otherwise nondescript HARD wood, which would be more resistant to the odd bump or ding. Also, the screws holding the forend cap onto the bar dovetailed into the barrel are pretty small and of soft-ish steel. If you lose one, you're hooped as they are I think metric. I'd advise securing them with LocTite. In fact, I've done this with most of the screws. The forend capi itself is kinda lightweight, possibly made of Zamac. None of this makes it a "bad" gun but it suggests that some details are more cosmetic than durable. But there's no question that it makes for a very trim package. I've just swapped out the (otherwise excellent) Skinner sight for a Bushnell red dot and hope to get to the range to sight it in.