Chiappa Little Badger Survival Rifle

Am Shooting Journal ^ | 8/28/20 | F Jardim

[w1n1]

The Little Badger's overall design principal is minimalistic. The Chiappa engineers gave the little gun everything it needs.
I first encountered the Chiappa Little Badger single-shot, I pegged it as a survival rifle. It comes in basic black, either in 22LR or 22WMR, both of which are fine for small game. With an overall length of 31 inches, it is already small, but it also folds over and onto itself, creating an extremely compact triangle about 16.5 inches tall and 8 inches across the base. It weighs less than 3 pounds, making it only slightly heavier than large center-fire pistols.

The Chiappa engineers gave the little gun everything it needs but resisted the temptation to load it down with things it didn't. For example, it has no foregrip other than four 4-inch pieces of Picatinny tactical rail attached to the flats of the barrel shroud.
They form a good gripping surface and give the shooter a place to mount a 4X scope and perhaps a tactical light for hunting nocturnal creatures, like raccoons and opossums. If you mount a scope, the factory offers a horizontal bar you can attach to the grooved thumb portion of the hammer that lets you cock it from either side of the scope. Also, there is no safety other than a half-cock notch on the hammer. A survival rifle should be rugged, and mechanically simple. The Little Badger fits the bill.

The factory sights are M1 Carbine-style fixed front with an adjustable rear. The large knob allows for precise click adjustments for windage, and elevation is adjusted using a sliding rear aperture that has six different positions, four of which are numbered, but this slide can easily be pushed out of place if you aren’t careful.
The sights, like the rail, ammunition holder and buttplate, are made of plastic, which didn’t appeal to me, but this is not an expensive rifle with an MSRP of $225, and they worked fine. My only concern is that they might not prove durable enough for long-term field use. Then again, my testing was not destructive and these parts might prove fully adequate. Read the rest of Chiappa badger survival rifle.

[Disambiguator]

It’s a low production volume operation. Also, no-one pays MSRP. Street price on those is closer to $900. Still not cheap!

[Chode]

100%

[Chode]

it was $180 brand new, of course it was 20 years ago

[View from the Cheap Seats]

That’s why the “re” is in revolver.