Li'l Sharps .38-55!

[Big Al1]

One other recent acquisition! Half pint Sharps in .38-55. Made by Chiappa, and my past experience with that brand was not good, but a single shot in .38-55, I had to do it.
Stock photo:
https://www.taylorsfirearms.com/half-pi ... 20070.html
My review!
It has a double set trigger. Set trigger is to light and regular trigger is OK. Adjustment seems to do nothing.
Love the tang sight, but the aperture was to small, easily corrected.
I changed the front sight and put on a hooded front sight.
Missed fired, was not hitting the center of the primer. First hit would not fire, second hit goes bang. I removed the breech block and there's an adjustment on the lever to raise the block higher. That corrected the misfire problem. Firing pin now hits center.
The half cock notch broke off, new part is back ordered. (That's why I was talking with Tanya!)
Other than that, it's a fun little gun and shoots great. The target below is a 255 grain gas check, 10 grains of Unique and long brass. Five shots.
The same load in short brass is almost as good!

IMG_1614.JPEG (74.01 KiB) Viewed 378 times

[Wambli Ska]

I'm so glad you posted this. I have seen several Chiappa guns that are VERY well priced for what they are and have been considering getting one as an experiment. The consensus is that QC is spotty with some great examples and some not so good one, but I think a lot of the complaints are from folks that had relatively simple issues that they did not know how to take care of themselves like your breech block issue, and off to the boards they go to bitch. Interested in your assessment of why the trigger is not adjusting properly when you have some time. The good news is that it SHOOTS. Everything else can be fixed easily.

[Diver43]

Chiappa? I remember you reading me the riot act when I picked up a .22 1911 clone by them. Glad your 38-55 does better than that .22 which hides in the back of my safe. I keep threatening to turn it in at a gun buy back or something. Yours is a good looking rifle.

[Big Al1]

Well, the set trigger is typical. It's only adjustable from 1.5-1.7 pounds, to light for me. The regular trigger is about 6.5 pounds with just a little creep but it breaks clean! The rest of the stuff is a minor problem, easily fixed.
They come is other calibers but the .38-55 is the only one that interested me.

That Chiacrappa 1911/.22 I had wasn't even a good paper weight!

[Elk Creek]

Great!! I’ve stayed away from chiapa for the quality reasons, I guess accuracy is where it’s at. That said it would royally piss me off if I had to put new parts into a brand new rifle make it work as designed. The set trigger should be easy enough to diagnose they are really simple. Take it out and study it I bet there is something in the works not right

[Big Al1]

Quality is the big reason I don't buy much new stuff, seems like the customer is QC. If it works, great! If not, it the owners problem!

[Wambli Ska]

Quality is the big reason I don't buy much new stuff, seems like the customer is QC. If it works, great! If not, it the owners problem!

About 95%+ of what I buy is used and I've had a great experience doing so, especially with "cowboy guns". Seems like a lot of folks buy these on a whim, twirl them around a few times, forget about them for a while and then sell them off with little or no rounds fired through them at a deep discount. most rifles have completely pristine bores once they realize that every time you touch off the rifle with factory ammo it's $1+ expense.

But even in older and real vintage guns, the problems I have experienced are pretty much always either by-product of maintenance neglect, or really simple gunsmithing fixes that I can take care of myself. In any case I don't buy unless I can justify the risk, and potential personal time/parts investment into a project. If it turns out I need to do nothing to the gun it's a huge win.

[JunkCollector]

I'm pretty much only buying used guns at this stage.
My last new guns were in 17HMR, and 204 ruger so been awhile.

So many old designs are just cool to try and esthetically more interesting.

[Elk Creek]

I'm pretty much only buying used guns at this stage.
My last new guns were in 17HMR, and 204 ruger so been awhile.

So many old designs are just cool to try and esthetically more interesting.

But they are making new old guns!!!

[Wambli Ska]

I'm pretty much only buying used guns at this stage.
My last new guns were in 17HMR, and 204 ruger so been awhile.

So many old designs are just cool to try and esthetically more interesting.

I absolutely agree. No modern gun can duplicate the feel in your hand and of a vintage S&W, a Single Action revolver, a cool lever action rifle or a Mauser action.

[sakodude]

Glad it’s working out for you. I’ve looked a a few but always worried about their QC rep in the past.