GUNS Magazine Chiappa Little Badger

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The Chiappa Little Badger rifle is light at 2.9 lbs. and compact at 31" overall.
It can be folded for storage and with its tough metal and plastic construction it
is a good choice to store in a vehicle or backpack.

Have you impulse-bought any rifles recently? I like to think I plan such purchases sensibly and rationally, determining needs, comparing features and prices, knowing pretty much what I want before ever going to the gun store. Buying a rifle on the spur of the moment seems like grabbing a pepperoni stick at the grocery store checkout just because it is handy.

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Have you impulse-bought any rifles recently? I like to think I plan such purchases
sensibly and rationally, determining needs, comparing features and prices, knowing
pretty much what I want before ever going to the gun store. Buying a rifle on the spur
of the moment seems like grabbing a pepperoni stick at the grocery store checkout
just because it is handy.

The Expert

I remember one impulse buy. Many years ago I stopped in at a favorite gun store to pick up a Redfield 6-18 scope I had ordered for use on a .220 Swift. As it happened the store had marked down the price of a Ruger .44 carbine, and on impulse I decided to buy it. By chance as my purchases were being rung up for sale, one of those experts who haunt all gun shops walked in, and (unasked) loudly provided his opinions, the main one being I was an idiot to put such a scope on a .44 Magnum rifle.

Not at all, I said mildly, this should be a perfect combination for a long-range antelope and mule deer rifle. After all, as was well known, the .44 Magnum is the most powerful handgun in the world and it was only logical it would be even more powerful in a rifle. The expert left the store sputtering and probably relates the story of the gun shop moron to this day. After he left the storeowner grinned and said, “God will punish you for that someday.” I guess it was kind of mean.

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Rotating the barrel about 90 degrees lets the extractor lift the fired case
from the chamber so it can be easily removed by hand by the shooter.

Another Whim

Well, I made another impulse buy a few days ago. By chance while idly looking up survival rifles online I’d come across some reviews of the Chiappa Little Badger rimfire rifle. Oddly enough there were few middle of the road comments. Reviewers either loved it or hated it. I noticed the haters for the most part had never owned or even fired the rifle, while those who actually tried the rifle raved about it. A couple of days later, since I’m now one of those tiresome experts who haunt gun stores, I was browsing the racks and noticed one on the rack. I asked to look at it.

The Chiappa Little Badger (LB) is a rimfire single-shot rifle, lightweight (2.9 lbs.) and compact with a 16.5″ barrel and 31″ overall length. It can be folded to a length of under 17″ for storage. It is about as basic as a rifle can get, made entirely of metal and plastic. It has a wire skeleton stock, a break action for loading and unloading, and a hammer with an external spur for manual cocking.

Initial inspection and handling gave mostly favorable impressions. There is some plastic used in construction including the rear sight and the four accessory rails. I’m not crazy about plastic on firearms but considering the quality of modern synthetics I know better than to make hasty judgments. Metal surfaces were smoothly finished, parts fit seemed very good and the barrel locked and unlocked solidly.

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The firing pin won’t contact the cartridge rim unless the hammer is manually
cocked and the trigger deliberately pulled. Dave even tried the “hammer test”
and the gun did not fire!

Trigger Time

What really impressed me was the quality of the trigger pull. Generally it is easier to get a good pull on a single shot than with a repeating action in which the sear and cocking piece disengage and re-engage when the action is cycled. Even considering this, the trigger was remarkable — a light, crisp break with minimal overtravel. The display rifle was in .22LR; I wanted a .22WMR which the store clerk got from inventory.

When I got the rifle home and checked the trigger with my Lyman gauge, weight of pull was almost exactly 2 lbs., consistent and clean. This is not a selected or specially prepared test model, just an example picked at random from dealer stock. I have rifles costing well into four figures that don’t have pulls as good.

Everything functioned as it should. The barrel unlocked easily and locked up solidly, there were no misfires, fired cases were pulled from the chamber by the extractor. There were no failures of any kind. Accuracy was very good with groups at 50 yards in the range of 1" after I fitted a Vortex red dot sight.

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Plastic loops in the stock provide storage for a dozen cartridges, in the case
of Dave’s rifle, the more potent .22 Mag.

There were a few things I felt needed improvement. The rear sight is a peep, adjustable for windage and elevation, but at least for my eyes the 1/16″ hole in the peep sight was too small. Since it is plastic, drilling it out is simple. I’m trying a 3/32″ hole and if it’s still too small after some testing I may go a bit larger. Also the elevation slide moves a bit too easily, so remember your setting using the number scale on the sight. In fact once you have an adjustment you like, it might be an idea to superglue the sight in place.

The four accessory rails look cool, though the bottom rail seems kind of useless to me as putting anything on it makes the rifle more bulky when folded. The rails are held by three “Torx” screws so I removed the bottom rail so the rifle will fold more compactly.

A good quality fabric carrying case is included. I’m having fun adding various accessories such as a Gerber fire starter, a CRKT Minimalist knife and a SureFire light. Add a box or two of cartridges, ear and eye protectors, and it makes up into a handy package for a vehicle or boat.

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Chiappa Little Badger

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