Welcome, dearest readers, friends, and those interested in my website; below, I have opted to compile all of my current, and future, firearms reviews. It had occurred to me, as each one is too brief to warrant its own page, that having them on one page would be much easier (and take a bit less data to load, jumping between pages!)
Allow me to introduce the Chiappa Little Badger rifle.
It's a .22 caliber, fold-down survival rifle, which is fantastic for my purposes.
Now, as long as self-defense is illegal here in Canada, I can only say that it is sufficient for protection from gnomes and skinwalkers, as well as other hostile bipedal creatures (kangaroos, anyone?)
However, I'd found it's a perfect marksman rifle for me, and great for pests, coyotes, and so on. Don't believe anyone that says a .22 is a "toy". A well-placed shot will kill pretty much anything. Now, of course, that being said - there are certainly calibers with more stopping power, better penetration, and so on. Still, this is by no means a toy. As such, all caution must be exercised as would be with a .50 caliber.
This rifle is fantastic - folded down, it could fit in a large pocket, and easily so in a tiny backpack or purse. While, due to the nature of Canadian gun laws, I cannot condone concealed carry, in places where it is permitted, this is a fantastic choice for backwoods and outdoors carry. As a survival gun (which it is designed to be), there are few guns that can beat this one.
While the inability to fire off more than one round per reload can be a negative for some, I appreciate the bulletproof (no pun intended) reliability, rugged simplicity, and solid construction. For my purposes, a break-barrel single-shot is perfect.
One thing to note is the unfortunate quality control at Chiappa - while I was delighted by the quality of the machining, and the rifle in general (a poor rifle is better than no rifle, and a mediocre one is better yet, and this one was quite alright in my books), I was rather disappointed by the presence of metal shavings around certain moving components.
Now, considering that I'd paid approximately $150.00USD for it (and let us consider that Canadian firearms markets are quite a bit inferior to the U.S.), I'd say I got my value's worth from this gun. Removing the shavings, and applying the old "hand-file and sandpaper" approach, I'd managed to get the gun to operate quite well. It's no Swiss watch, but it'll certainly do in a pinch.
After a complete disassembly, and reassembly with a generous application of vaseline (poor man's assembly lube), I applied an even more generous amount of grease to the mechanism, and oil to the barrel and body of the rifle. Honestly, this rifle would likely be able to survive a year submerged in a pond at this point.
Almost-religious maintenance is essential for keeping a rifle in battle-ready condition, it's certainly not something that requires decades of study to do. Nearly any layman (hey, I learned to!) can learn to maintain their own weapon, and to operate it responsibly - something that I make sure to do every time I'm out in the field with it.
Hopefully, if you're considering buying this gun, my review provided a bit of insight into what you can expect when you buy yours. My reviews aren't sponsored or funded by anyone, and are just my own personal (and hopefully entertaining) experiences with the products in question. Cheers!