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Hello
I used to have the Erma M1 with a selection of mags and it was great fun until the aircraft alloy parts became worn out I think Erma went out of business 90s. I have recently been thinking of acquiring another fun gun for the 25M range and was going to purchase a Ruger 10/22, but I have seen a Chiappa M1 Carbine (A real good looking version). Problem is a friend informs me that he had one and it suffers from a known weakness and breakages of some of the cast parts. Anyone know what the problem is, are there upgraded parts available, has the manufacturer fixed the problem on the new models ?.

Sadly I’ve only heard bad things about these rifles....

There are replacement parts available for the ermas that fix some common issues however, I’ve seen replacement action rods.

Not sure on the parts for Chiapas

Very good article here

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

Looks like there are plenty of kits to swap out the plastic parts with USGI metal ones but they are cosmetic upgrades.

The weak operating rod has been redesigned and now is a lot beefier.
We had one bread op rods on a regular basis and this eventually broke the receiver, however the replacement with the stronger parts has been flawless for many thousands of rounds. They are a cheap rifle but our one shoots well and does get a bit of a hammering from the pay-n-play types.

I just bought one used (sightly) but have no yet had a chance to shoot it. I would really like to swap out the plastic sight bits. Hope it's not as bad as some say.

Is there a UK supplier of spare parts for the Chiappa M1 especially the upgrade parts . From what I have seen original/reproduction M1 carbine parts are available in the USA and will fit the Chiappa, but it`s impossible to get one of them to ship to the UK.

RayTrade are the new importers and dealt with the last problem we had just fine, incl free shipping of rifle to their gunsmith. The replacement was quickly sent and so far hasn't been a problem.

We never had any problems with the old importer (Edgars) and they sent out replacement parts as needed, but this was all before the upgrade to the receiver and op-rod to strengthen the rifle.

Mauserbill wrote:Is there a UK supplier of spare parts for the Chiappa M1 especially the upgrade parts . From what I have seen original/reproduction M1 carbine parts are available in the USA and will fit the Chiappa, but it`s impossible to get one of them to ship to the UK.

Just Google M1 carbine parts UK and you will stumble on all the militaria suppliers with all the cosmetic original parts you could want.
Stocks, sights, bayonet bars etc.

Good to hear they have fixed the issues, as the original examples were very poor on quality.

A good mate had one of their AR M4 clones ... utter rubbish, fit for the bin quite frankly.

He got rid very quickly...

Alan D wrote:

Mauserbill wrote:
Good to hear they have fixed the issues, as the original examples were very poor on quality.

Well, I hope so.
The original op-rod failed three times, finally breaking the receiver at the same time as the op-rod broke. about 1500-2000 rounds before failure each time.

The new upgraded Carbine has had just under 5000 rounds at a conservative estimate and is still in one piece.

Chiappa are a bit hit and miss unfortuantely. I rate their lever-action rifles very highly, I believe their 1892 is the best on the market, their other centrefire reproduction guns are excellent too as is the Rhino revolver. Their cheaper rimfires, however, are pretty horrible, at least the ones I've shot. I'm glad to hear they're sorting some of the problems with the M1 though. I've shot the 9mm version in the US, and the owner didn't have a very high opinion of it.