Chiappa MC14 .380 pistol, anyone have any experience good or bad?

[Indyal]

Looking for a pistol for wife: small hands, some arthritis, need easy to rack slide. A larger than pocket pistol .380 seems to be a good option for her. This pistol looks and feels well made but I do not know anyone who has fired one.

 

[looney2ns]

"She" needs to shoot one. Also consider the Ruger LC380 or the Glock 42.

 

[SEIndSAM]

I tend to avoid anything that says "Chiappa".....Have her try a Walther P380...They can be had for $350 on sale.

 

[451_Detonics]

Just bought Mary a Sig 238, she loves it operates just like the gun she shoots for competition, a SA RO in 9mm. Having all the same controls makes it more natural to her.

 

[SnoopLoggyDog]

Nice looking handgun in the picture. Too new to really know if the bugs are worked out.

 

[BADWOLF]

Hey OP sent you a private message...

 

[russc2542]

I got one for the wife a few months ago as her first gun actually. Saw it for sale and had her meet me at RK on the way home. she held it and said she liked it. I told her to rack the slide and try to lock it back, she could. Kind of a big thing since she's about 100lbs wrapped in a wet blanket, not strong, and has issues doing so with many guns (more psychological but still). It's a fairly gentle shooter in being a .380 as heavy as a full-size plastic gun. I'm not a huge fan of cheap but anything to get her into and open to shooting (because then there's less opposition to my doing so). Yes, It'll be a LOT easier for her to shoot than any pocket pistol (LC, G42). My wife hated the LC before she even had a chance to shoot it and has hated every similar sized gun because she can't get a good grip to hold on. My big hands can just sort of smother little guns into submission but she doesn't have the strength. The MC14 (and 84FS) is like a full-size gun scaled to 80%. It fits her hands very well.

It's a clone of a Beretta 84FS. different slide obviously but close enough the mags work. I recently purchased a Beretta and it's better but you pay for it too. It's actually just imported/name stamped by Chiappa, it's made by Girsan, a Turkish machining shop. Functional differences to the Beretta also include: no decocker in the safety and no mag disconnect. My wife (who has maybe 500 rounds to her name including rentals) picked up the Beretta and immediately commented that it felt more solid with a better trigger but that comes at a price. (the Beretta also is harder to get a good trip on the slide due to it being flatter.)

Pros:
-It's comfortable to shoot and manipulate. It's a great gateway gun (it worked on my wife)
-cheap (Rural King has had it on sale in the $275 range more than once)

Cons:
-It's picky about ammo (fails to feed, ammo gets stuck cocked halfway into the chamber due to how the angle of he loading ramp interacts with the chamber and case size. Perfecta doesn't work well, Geko's so-so, WWB is fine. It can be remedied by knocking the gun on something or whacking it with your hand but it does happen. Of course, YMMV, see what works in yours. Polishing the chamber/ramp area may help, I haven't had a chance to fire ours since doing so but it feels like it feeds smoother even manually racking the slide.
-Quality is compromised by the price point. The back corner of the slide that cocks the hammer was mushrooming around 400 rounds and had to be filed down. That being said, it started out a fairly sharp corner unlike my P30 which started out with a bevel. The finish seems to be a heavy paint or thin powdercoat type material. We have a spot on top of the slide that chipped or got nicked or something. I dunno how long it'd last in a holster, carried all the time.
-If you pull the trigger REALLY slowly, the hammer will drop to a half-cocked position. You can either let off and lower the hammer (then DA-fire) or continue pulling the trigger which will drop the hammer and fire. I only know about this because of a gun-nut friend of mine who was messing around feeling it out. My wife doesn't have the strength for trigger control to do it and even I can only do it most of the time. If you just pull the trigger fully, no issues.

What do I actually think of it? It's not bad... it's not great either. It's decently (but not well-) built and should be fine if used within the design parameters which don't include heavy use. Think of it like a Kia: it's cheap, it won't stand up to long term or hard use, you won't have much support if it doesn't work, but won't scare you, it's easy, usually works, it feels fine, and it's cheap. I would buy it again for my purpose or yours or to have around the house in case.