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The new Chiappa M6 Survival Rifle.
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Read up on the Chiappa M6: https://www.chiappafirearms.com/products/163
Buy one on GunsAmerica: https://www.gunsamerica.com/Search.aspx?T=chiappa%20m6
The Concept of a Survival Rifle
Some time ago I wrote a review of my M6 Scout rifle (https://www.gunsamerica.com/blog/the-m6-springfield-scout-rifle/). In that article, I trace the lineage of the scout rifle from World War II on through the end of the Springfield M6 Scout era. Since there are no more copies of that rifle being imported, the prices have skyrocketed. I even received a few offers to sell my rifle at a considerable profit after the article was published.
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The rifle, without inserts or ammo, is light–under 6 pounds.
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Not to worry–it’s still tucked away in the back of the gun safe. There were also several people that reached out to me about the good folks at Chiappa, who were making their own version of the M6 scout rifle and importing it from Italy. I immediately went to my favorite local purveyor of guns and announced that I had to have one. I settled on the M6 scout rifle with the eight X-Caliber inserts. The rifle cost just over $700.00, including tax, but I ‘m a sucker for this concept.
Everything You Need in a Survival Rifle
As you look through the list of features, you begin to realize that almost everything you can imagine augmenting a single survival gun has been jammed into one package. If my math is correct, this gun is capable of firing 13 distinct rounds using all eight of the X caliber inserts. Of course, you have the dedicated .22 long rifle barrel, and the smooth-bored 12-gauge upper barrel (complete with screw-in modified Remington choke). The X-Caliber inserts are labeled for .380 auto, 9mm, .357 Magnum, .40 Smith & Wesson, .44 Magnum, .45 ACP, 20-gauge shotgun and .410 caliber shot shells. With these inserts, it is also possible to fire several compatible sub-calibers, such as .38 special, .44 special, .45 Colt, and a host of various extinct rounds.
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The rifle comes with eight barrel inserts that, all together, weigh 4.5 pounds.
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The included case folds compactly with Velcro and snaps.
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It has nylon straps to attach to your gear or easily stows in a backpack.
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The buttstock is polypropylene with a metal skeleton.
Critics might note that the X-Caliber inserts don’t come in .223 or .308. If this were really going to be the do-all one-gun solution, Chiappa should look to finding a way to include those. My thought is that they’d have to make the gun more robust to handle the pressures, but it would be worth it.
Let’s get back to the gun itself. This is an interesting design. The buttstock is constructed of skeletonized metal, filled with a special polypropylene foam. There are pre-formed holes to secure both .22 long rifle and 12-gauge ammunition, and there is also a container fitted to hold the included cleaning gear.
The action on this gun is quite unique. Like most survival rifles, this is a traditional over/under break-open. The traditional method is via a latch on the top of the chamber that locks to the receiver. The X Rifle accomplishes the break with a lever action mechanism on the bottom, instead. Ithaca made lever action single shots for years, like the old Model 66. The design just seems obscure when compared to the rest of the break action shotguns.
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One ugly Model 66 DuraCoat project gun. Need to experiment? Pick up a cheap single shot.
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The break action, opened wide. That .22 barrel looks really small in comparison.
This lever action also serves as a trigger guard for the two triggers–a setup reminiscent of a cowboy action shotgun, with one trigger positioned in front of the other. The safety is what you would expect on a traditional double-barreled shotgun, with a slide on the top of the tang.
The front sight is optical fiber, and the rear sight is adjustable in elevation and windage. The gun comes with three picatinny rails.
A Missed Opportunity
I truly, truly longed for this rifle to be the best modern iteration of the survival rifle. It’s not that there was any one feature that did not work; most of the features just did not work well together.
Let’s look at a few examples. It was almost impossible to get a consistent cheek weld on the gun, due to the innovative material used to make the stock. Polypropylene foam. That space would have been better utilized by replacing the fill with additional ammunition storage or even a storage spot for one of the X-Caliber inserts.
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Storage for .22 long rifle/12gauge and a canister filled with cleaning gear.
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Next, the lever action and double triggers would have been fine on a gun that did not have to hinge and break open, but they proved to be a real pain to operate on this platform. I attribute some of it to the re-cocking of the action, which was done with this lever.
Three plastic accessory rail’s come standard on the gun.
Using double triggers is also a matter for debate. Some like it. Others contend that you could pull the wrong trigger and miss a shot, or unleash the wrong barrel. I would have much preferred a barrel selector switch.
The sights were borderline unusable. The adjustable rear peep with a giant red dot post is a good place to start. This arrangement proved almost impossible to fire accurately, as the peep was too small for the fiber optic front sight. Plus, the rear sight was easily disturbed by the recoil of the gun, and moved between shots. A little gunsmithing and a dab of Loctite solved this particular problem, for the most part.
The X-Caliber adapters are quite an ingenious idea, and I believe they have true potential. They are steel inserts that fit in a 12gauge barrel, with chambers cut for the designated caliber (with rifling in the balance of the insert-barrel). The inserts did function as advertised, although my experience has taught me that you need to bring a few tools to extract the cartridges. I will confess that I had some safety concerns about these inserts, but they proved to be unfounded.
On the Range
The term “survival rifle” implies that a gun can be used for both personal protection and putting food on the table. With this definition in mind, there are several boxes that must be checked: the firearm must function reliably, deliver sufficient ballistics, and have a reasonable amount of accuracy.
Velocities from the 9″ inserts.
My first test targeted the ballistics that were delivered by the gun while utilizing the X-Caliber inserts. You can see from the image that the ballistics were more than acceptable.
Extracting the spent casings from the X-Caliber inserts proved to be both time-consuming and awkward. First, both hands are required to break open the rifle using the lever action on the bottom. Then, you retrieve the tool from your pocket (transferring the gun to one hand to do so), and then you begin scraping until you can hook a portion of the case and extract it from the gun. Finally, you’re prepared to find your next round, perform some type of Barney Fife maneuver to insert it into the gun, and close the action.
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Once the round is fired extraction is necessary not automatic.
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Step two dig the casing out.
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When you’re ready to change calibers, you simply remove the insert and find the correct insert for the caliber you want to shoot. So one could argue that reloads would best be accomplished with a pocket-full of these steel inserts pre-loaded with various calibers.
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Notice the rubber O-ring this is a centering and sizing device.
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There is a rubber O ring on the outside of each of the inserts. I concluded that this was necessary to keep the insert from damaging the shotgun barrel. The use of a rubber O ring insert could be problematic for accuracy; the insert is partially extracted each time the gun is broken open, and therefore might not return to the exact same position or orientation in the 12-gauge tube. In addition to that worrisome detail, the rubber ring would expand and contract based on the heat transferred with each round fired. The possibility for damage or loss of this O-ring could be significant, although I do not believe that it would cause a bullet strike inside the 12gauge barrel.
Accuracy
And so, it was time to carefully test accuracy. I felt that the maximum accuracy would be achieved by the lower barrel, chambered in .22 long rifle. I went with my usual “maximum accuracy” setup with a scope and lead sled. When I went to attach a scope to the accessory rail on top of the gun, I discovered that the rail was plastic. I’m not a fan of plastic rails. What’s the point? They break. If they don’t, they flex. They’re fine for some low-stakes applications–like rimfire plinking and airsoft, but beyond that I’m skeptical. As you can see in the photos, I didn’t use a scope. The good news is that there are three on the gun, so if you chew up one, or break it, you can rotate in a new one.
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One of the three accessory rail’s.
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Notice the markings from the injection molding.
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To get a baseline, I determined that I would first test the rifle’s accuracy at 25 yards with the .22 long rifle. The five-shot group fired from the lead sled could not be covered with my hand. The ammunition that I chose to use was federal auto match, which I have had excellent results with in numerous other guns.
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Accuracy testing the 22 long rifle at 25 yards.
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This five round group I could not cover with my hand.
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With all of the caliber choices in the world available, I decided to concentrate on one caliber for testing accuracy: 9mm My reasoning for this was that 9mm would be the caliber most likely used in a survival situation. There’s more of that out there in the world than most other handgun calibers. And I’d shot all of the other inserts numerous times and didn’t find any one to behave differently than any of the others.
I placed a target at 25 yards, secured the rifle correctly in the lead sled, and then fired a three-round group using Winchester 9mm. NATO 124 grain. The best group that I was able to fire with this setup was 4.1 inches. To ensure that I wasn’t just having an extremely off day, or a run-in with bad ammunition, I retrieved from my truck a double-stack 9mm. 1911. Standing with a two handed grip, I fired three shots of the same ammunition, and was able to fire a 2.6-inch group.
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The top group fired from the Chiappa rifle bottom group fired from a handgun.
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The rifle was fired from a rest handgun two-handed grip standing.
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I then put the largest target I could find at 100 yards and switched back to the Scout. After five shots, I began my walk of shame to the hundred-yard line. I was only able to find three holes in the target, and those formed a group of 9.3 inches. So let’s call those the best three out of five.
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This was the largest target. I had only three of the five rounds found it.
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These three rounds of the five were separated by over 9 inches.
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Of course, you could have simply put in a buck shot shell and hoped for better results, assuming you have a buckshot shell on hand when civilization collapses.
Conclusions
This gun had so much promise in the beginning, but it just did not live up to even the baseline that was set by the Springfield Armory M6 survival rifle. It shoots more like a proof of concept than a viable survival rifle.
I want to stress that the one really innovative piece of this design is this: the X-Caliber inserts. They are extraordinarily heavy, but they really do have some potential. I think my next project will be to find a single-shot 12-gauge shotgun and see how they perform in a different platform. Anyone up for a short-barrel, multi-caliber handgun shotgun?
I think that’s the next step. The 9 inch barrel inserts are kick ass, in theory. They are like 9 inch pistols. But the extra barrel sticking out past the end is just wasted space. It doesn’t do anything for the accuracy. So maybe I’ll file a Form 1 and turn that old Ithaca Model 66 into a 9 inch short barreled shotgun. Would it be worth $200 to make that gun even uglier and less functional? Maybe–but it will need an optic and new coat of paint.
I’d Form 1 the Chiappa, just for grins, but I can’t figure out what it would be! It could be a short barreled shotgun, because this is a 12 gauge. It could be a short barreled rifle, because it is a .22. It can’t make up its mind.
The Chiappa M6 feels like a rifle built to be as light as possible. While that is attractive for a survival gun, the selling point is the inclusion of the X-Caliber inserts, which are very heavy. And with the accuracy as unpredictable as it is, this really becomes a moot point.
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Several of the barrels will shoot multiple calibers 38/357 & 45 Long colt/.410 shotgun.
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The cleaning kit that comes with the gun.
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Looks interesting send me some info maybe catalog
The Chiappa looks like a great idea that has been executed on the cheap. I was really hoping that this one was going to be a winner because I love the idea. But garbage is garbage and who needs the aggravation, especially if one’s life may depend on the quality of the firearm that is carried? Until someone somewhere comes up with a high quality platform that lives up to the promise I’ll stick with what I’ve got.
I love my M6 Scout. It works very well with CCI standard velocity ammo and while the high velocity types lack accuracy regardless of brand. That said, I just picked up some Winchester Hyper velocity (1435fps advertised) and it shoots just as well as the CCI.
I just wish that I could think of a good way to carry a 12 gage and adequate supplies of ammo along with the M6. Actually the consideration of ammo weight and the number of rounds on hand that I can reasonably carry is one of the big plusses of the Scout calibers of .410 and 22LR. Small game is the primary chow in a survival scenario and so is not alerting everyone in a five mile radius that you’re out there. Plenty of white tals have fallen to well placed .22 LR and .410 buck or slug over the years it’s merely a matter of shot placement and hunting skill.
For self defense I’d love to tote a 12 gage or even an AR but I can only carry so much and I plan on a stealthier approach to getting along and staying away from the two legged ferals. If need be I will bring along my .40S&W just to get out of a tight spot if need be. If that’s inadequate tactics the I guess that’s the music I have to face.
The Chiappa looks like a great idea that has been executed on the cheap. I was really hoping that this one was going to be a winner because I love the idea. But garbage is garbage and who needs the aggravation, especially if one’s life may depend on the quality of the firearm that is carried? Until someone somewhere comes up with a high quality platform that lives up to the promise I’ll stick with what I’ve got.
I love my M6 Scout. It works very well with CCI standard velocity ammo and while the high velocity types lack accuracy regardless of brand. That said, I just picked up some Winchester Hyper velocity (1435fps advertised) and it shoots just as well as the CCI.
I just wish that I could think of a good way to carry a 12 gage and adequate supplies of ammo along with the M6. Actually the consideration of ammo weight and the number of rounds on hand that I can reasonably carry is one of the big plusses of the Scout calibers of .410 and 22LR. Small game is the primary chow in a survival scenario and so is not alerting everyone in a five mile radius that you’re out there. Plenty of white tals have fallen to well placed .22 LR and .410 buck or slug over the years it’s merely a matter of shot placement and hunting skill.
For self defense I’d love to tote a 12 gage or even an AR but I can only carry so much and I plan on a stealthier approach to getting along and staying away from the two legged ferals. If need be I will bring along my .40S&W just to get out of a tight spot if need be. If that’s inadequate tactics the I guess that’s the music I have to face.
The reason you are having to pry the spent casing out with a tool is you have the insert in the gun up-side down. The indentation on the lip of the insert goes up, so you can get the tip of your finger around the edge of the shell casing and pull it out without a tool (if you do not have thick gloves on).
Also it keeps the insert from sliding in too far, so you can easily pull the insert out when you are changing inserts or returning to 12 gauge.
I’m not sure why anyone would want a rifle with a foam stock that required you to pry out the spent round. Doesn’t seem like it would be too durable, and forget about any chance of putting a follow up shot on target. The concept is interesting but for 700 dollars I think it needs some re-engineering.
I have never seen a survival rifle that shoots accurately. Armalite or Henry. Cant hit a squirrel past 10 yards. My friends have said the new take down 10-22 sometimes works accurately and sometimes does not. Backpack, SHTF situation, you need small , compact and light. I chose the browning bar in 22 short. Light and can hit 1 inch target out to 40 yards. It breaks down and assembles easily. A plus is quietness. If a 22 short can kill cows in the slaughter house it can kill most anything with a good placed shot. Of course they are not using guns anymore, but I have witnessed it many times as a youngster.
FAIL! Why on Earth would I want a single shot firearm? Especially if SHTF!!!!! One good all around magazine fed rifle in my choice of caliber is a thousand times better than this.
Exactly, and your magazines? are you insane??? I only carry belt fed 150 round weapons. it’s SHTF, you will be shooting non stop!
Landfill.
Springfield’s CZ-made M6 was the best example of the type. Wish they would bring that back.
I had an M6 Scout in Hornet/.410 and try though I might, I simply could not warm to it. The fact that the action kept breaking open on its own and half ejecting the spent .410 shell might have had something to do with it. Nice concept but still lacking in execution. After it was returned from the factory the second time I sent it on down the road. This Chiappa seems to me as being a poorly executed wanna-be M6 that I personally would want nothing to do with. Face it people; one gun simply cannot be made to do everything, try though you might. So why try? If you want a one gun, you all/be all/do all & end all then buy a Contender, accept the limitations and live with them.
Don’t waste your money Chiappa’s are P.O.S. !! Buy a used Savage model 24 mine is a 20ga./223 Rem. Accurate and heavy duty !!!
I also own a Savage, model 24J (I think). It is a .22 LR / .20 GA. I purchased 2 inserts, one for .410 GA/.45 LC and one for .38 SPL.
I would not have the piece of junk. No gun is useful if you can’t hit the broad side of a barn with it. An accurate pellet rifle would be better than this. I am not so sure about the (survival rifle malarky). Give me an accurate gun or a shotgun that will take small game and defend myself and the family any day over this idea.
To Quote someone smarter than me “Only accurate guns are interesting”. This is not an interesting gun. Which seems strange since double barrel rifle shotgun combos have been around for years.
I agree…what I can’t understand with this is why have the rifles .22 on the bottom? One must “aim” the rifle…shotguns are “pointed”…
I am not surprised. Every Chiappa handgun I’ve looked at is junk. The 1911-22LR pot metal frames I first saw were simply cap gun quality. Every other semi-auto .22 handgun I’ve seen is just more cap pistol grade. The Rhino revolver is interesting. Having an extra handful of parts inside it strikes me as being a very weak point. This O/U just screams junk. The barrel insert idea is an old concept that has not proven useful nor a profit maker.
Find old used .22 rifles and single shot 20 Ga. and you will have more practical hardware.
I think the phrase “POS” belongs in the title somewhere to warn us not to wast time.
1) Isn’t the FIRST rule of owning a firearm the ability to hit what you aim at? If it’s not you, and it is the firearm, then the firearm is unsafe, and YOU become responsible the second time you pull the trigger. How can you have a clear background when you have no clue what the background is?
2) No offense to any of he armed forces but the one I was trained to serve WITH (Navy Corpsman WITH the 2-3/5, would move to a knife or other sure-fire means of self-defense if a weapons system became unusable – even if was new-NBF out of the box. It’s messy, but you are telling the story, not they guy you missed while giving away your position.
How can you use so many words when three letters would have worked? I don’t even want my neighbors (one of whom is NOT country friendly – moved from San Fran, Cali) to have one of these POS’s. **I** want to work outside without dressing for known battle engagements; because that is EXACTLY what is being described here. Survival IMPLIES one would be able to live with this firearm. It is more than clear that this would not be the case.
I live in the Great Basins and Ranges. (Sierra 500 miles one way, Rockies 500 miles the other). While I would LOVE a multi-caliber rifle, when what you have mostly to eat are birds and rodents even this would not save my life – so I carry several for different game. Behind the seat an old Wingmaster 12 with chokes, a Weatherby .22Lr, a Sako Quad minus the 17 Mach2, a Rem 700 (.270) and my great Grandfathers Marlin 45-70 – and since you never leave your vehicle (RIGHT YOU GUYS?????? YOU GOT THAT FAR, RIGHT?? YOU NEVER LEAVE YOUR VEHICLE? GOOD!) it’s taken me a few days, but with my GOOD bag and what I can bring down I’ve NEVER been without fresh meat, even on a 3 day get-me-unstuck bummer (yet another reason for winches front and back with a high-lift or 2). (why so many? I Transect the Sierra a LOT, SO West Slopes are FAR different form East Slopes. —- And once an antelope, many deer, though never a bear.
Survival means many things – and relying on a zip-gun for food has never been one of them for me – I’ve got an OLD 58# Bear Bow if it gets that bad, and I don’t think it’s been out from behind the seat in over 10 years. And that reminds me, my Speer gun needs to have the rubber replaced, for 3 years now, so that ones on ME, not the maker (amazing what a 12 with a nice load will do inside something like a bear when the SHTF. But that’s what the 45-70 Guide is for MAYBE the best medium and larger game rilfe I’ve ever head, HEAVY LeverLution now that there are such rounds. I can drop a deer with the Sako 17 for those with big-caliber envy.
“THE ULTIMATE SURVIVAL GUN? NO! A POS!” Should be your title if you want to tell the truth and not piss off the potential makers of what MIGHT become (I won’t hold my breath) a usable (note the absence of the word ‘good’) weapon platform. Gotta keep those discounts and free samples coming in the front door — I understand not EVERY firearm is like that. I pity the person who cannot read the earth-scorching that goes with a question mark. You really need those three letters, not often, but more often than you tend to use then: P – O – S.
Doc, my editor has banned me from using three letter and acronyms. Hope that answers your question.
Thank you for your service!
Glad I saw these reviews, I almost bought one of these. So I don’t think I’ll get one. I’ll stick with my 10/22 takedown.
If you were looking for a reliable, multi caliber takedown…do what I did and look to the Rossi matched pair/set…
The insert idea is awesome. The gun is atrocious. Buy a good relable single shot 12ga and get all the adapters you’ll ever need at gunadapters . com
Ultimate Survival Rifle? More like “Ultimate Piece of Overpriced Garbage I’ve seen reviewed”…What level of Idiot would spend $700 on this?
I have a over/under in 410 and 22hornet us airforce can’ find anything any thing wrong with it kills bobcats, deer cayotes no problem.
Great rifle, I have one too.
Although I’ve never seen/shot one…I’m betting the .22 hornet is on the top…
Gimme a chimpmunk 22 and a redhawk 44 mag. If one breaks, i can use the other.
Shotgun for birds? Naw, they gotta land sometime.
It sounds as if the insert is jumping around on the O-rings, although the built-in .22 wasn’t accurate, either. Is there any rifling in the .22 barrel? What else could have caused the .22s to jump around so much? If the inserts are only 9″ long, that’s just a Buntline Special. Don’t real rifles have a longer bit of rifling than that? It would have been interesting to see how the shotgun barrel did with birdshot, buckshot, and a slug.
Much of the lack of accuracy could be attributed to the fact that the .22 is Under the scattergun barrel…lol…
I might have missed it, but I didn’t see any comments on the trigger pull. How did the trigger feel? What was the pull weight for each trigger? Usually this is part of a review.
You did not miss it, I did not comment on the trigger pull. There was nothing remarkable either good or bad about the trigger. It was what you would expect from an inexpensive side-by-side shotgun with double triggers. If you really want to know the weight I will be happy to post it.
I read that you asked if anyone was interested in a “Anyone up for a short-barrel, multi-caliber handgun shotgun”?
How much would you pay me to take it off your hands? LOL 🙂
Have you tried to use a ram rod to remove the spent shell casings?
Yes I did try a long cleaning rod. Because of the insert it was actually worse than digging them out from the breach.
When you try your SBS single shot insert concept, switch to polyurethane orings (the white ones) as they’re more forgiving of heat, abrasion, and chemicals/solvents.
I would love to own an original M6, but I refuse to pay the prices that I see at gun shows. I do have a Savage 24J (.22LR/.20GA). I did find inserts to shoot .45LC/.410GA and .38 SPL. That will do, for now.
The idea of a gun that will shoot whatever ammunition you are likely to scrounge in an emergency situation is appealing, but without enough accuracy to kill something edible, or someone who would kill you, it isn’t much good. It could probably be improved upon enough to be practical, but at a price no one would pay.
Not sure what the cost difference would be, but something like a Thompson Center Contender setup with lightweight barrels would be more ideal from an accuracy standpoint.
Rossi has the matched pair/set…and I think you had the inserts upside down…while the rifled inserts are a plus, one would probably be shooting the .22 more than the others so it seems to me that that barrel should be on top, since one aims a rifle and points a shotgun…just sayin’…
If they are more accurate in a different platform, maybe Chiappa should forget the gun and market the inserts as a stand-alone product. I have an H&R 12 ga. cut down to 18.75″. If I could convert it to all those calibers . . . nah. Maybe ONE insert so I could fire shotshells and ammo from the one particular handgun I took when SHTF.
Please proof read, Guns America! I like that you have original content, and not just derivative information that I could look up elsewhere, but the constant litany of typos is unforgivable. Plural words do not get an apostrophe!
Please… Just stop.
You’re correct, the errors are enough to make one want to scream. Consider the source though.
Dewey
Since, I am the source of the article I have some advice to help your reaction. Perhaps you should take up drinking before reading anything that I write. If alcohol is not to your liking a nice serotonin enhancer. Interesting though, I have been told my articles put people to sleep, but never overstimulated?
Cheers
Dear “voice of reason” after reading your comment, I went down to the local grammar police to turn myself in. I informed them of my incorrect use of the apostrophe. They have reviewed the article, and your comments. They have informed me that in fact is quite forgivable. However, they would like to discuss with you two exclamation points in one paragraph.
Pure 100% Silliness and a waste of money . . . Everyone knows that the ultimate survival rifle is, and has always been, the Ruger 10/22!
While I won’t put down all the attributes of the 10-22, I will say that the more moving parts, the more to go wrong. I’d take a bolt or single shot any day over an auto.
I think it is a great concept but just needs some work to work the bugs out,i am an avid collector,love my henry rifles and others but i bought a couple of inexpensive H R (Handi -rifles) a couple of years ago,one in a very heavy type 22 barrel and one in 20 gauge as collectible type survival rifles and was quite impressed with the accuracy and ease of use of both of them,just for giggles we took the 20 gauge barrel off the gun and wanted to see if it locked into true action for the 22 rifle version and sure enough it did although i am not sure it would fire that way we were surprised that they were using pretty ,much the same base action for both so the concept has been around for a while just nobody seems to be running with it enough to make one worthy of purchasing yet,i also was quite impressed with the accuracy of the little henry survival rifle in 22 lR which all comes apart easily and fits into the stock for easy carry in a backpack etc. and it actually floats if dropped in the water in its closed down configuration.One thing i have discovered over the years collecting many different types of firearms is that it is not always about how expensive a firearm is,its all about the thought that was put into the design of them that makes them worth having,some of the most expensive guns i have purchased i have been completey disgusted with afterwards from performance or design flaws and some of the cheapest guns have turned out to be the best as far as for usefulness and operation and comfortability and accuracy.The Ruger SR 1911 45 cap pistolis the perfect example,It far outshoots all its competitors according to all who have multiple 1911s and its design ranks right up with colt and limber and is actually better in many ways(upward tail in back of grip instead of pointing downward to dig into the hand every time fired like some of the others,makes it much more comfortable to shoot,also much better sights and handles most any type ammo where some of the others are more finicky so to speak on what type of ammo they will consistently feed properly)The ruger sr1911 covered all those issues and for about half the price of a normal Colt or a Kimber or springfield type 1911 which i also have a few of.So there you have it,Cost does not always equal quality in materials or design and past great reputation and higher cost does not always equal a better firearm as your evaluation of this survival rifle just showed,thanks for the info,it was very helpful.Have a great day and enjoy your time at the range,i know i always do,and do often,LOL
Great points but damn that was a hard read…lol…
Its refreshing to hear a honest review.
Thanks I’m glad you liked it.
The gun sounds like a real POS! What a waste of time . . . .
This firearm is a great example of an invention for the sake of inventing instead of inventing to solve a specific needed requirement. A total waste of manufacturing monies and buyers monies. This firearm should be nicknamed “The White Elephant”.
IMHO the concept of a one-gun-shoots-all-caliber firearm is completely senseless. I would rather live another day by shooting a firearm designed specific for a certain caliber. The more generic a firearm is designed to do multiple calibers the more average I would expect the functionality and accuracy to become.
This firearm is to me a great example of an invention for the sake of inventing and not for a required purpose.
Foe overall accuracy, interchangeablity,although a little more weight, give me the TC Contender any day.