Chiappa Firearms Big Badger: the Badger, all grown up
Chiappa Firearms is now offering the Big Badger line of folding centerfire survival rifles: lightweight and versatile, they’re the “grown-up” version of the quintessential Little Badger
Chiappa Firearms Big Badger: the Badger, all grown up
Photos by Bruno Circi / GUNSweek.com
Chiappa Firearms first introduced the Little Badger single-shot rifle back in 2013: simple, lightweight, foldable, chambered first in .22 Long Rifle, then in .22 Magnum and .17 HMR, the Little Badger was a true breakthrough for the Italian company.
Manufactured in various colors and with the user’s choice of basic metal and polymer or wooden furniture, the Chiappa Firearms Little Badger is a quintessential survival rifle, conceived to be easy and simple to use, lightweight and convenient to carry when out in the great outdoors. The small caliber may make it less than convenient for protection against aggressive animals, except maybe for venomous snakes, but it definitely works in containing operation costs and is more than effective in foraging food by hunting small game.
In 2016, the Little Badger would be joined by the M6 combination guns – more specifically the M6-22 and the M6 X-Caliber – in Chiappa Firearms’ line of survival rifles. Both the M6 models feature a top .22 caliber rifled barrel, and a bottom smoothbore barrel in 20-gauge for the M6-22, in 12-gauge for the X-Caliber model, this last one compatible with Chiappa’s X-Caliber set of caliber conversion inserts for a wide array of centerfire pistol and rifle calibers, making it even more versatile and convenient.
The Chiappa Big Badger rifle (.30-30 Win or .350 Legend) and the Big Badger smoothbore in .410 caliber
The Little Badger was, and still is, however, the most successful of them all. And it isn’t hard to see why: it’s small and light, it’s convenient and easy to operate, it’s cheap to buy and to feed, and it’s perfect for small-game hunting, plinking, formal training, and to introduce the youngest generations to the basics of marksmanship and safe firearms handling. The success of the Little Badger convinced Chiappa Firearms that there was indeed a very receptive market for such firearms, and that time had come to aim… higher.
That’s where the Chiappa Big Badger rifles come into play: first introduced in early 2024, the Big Badger is a folding, single-shot rifle conceived as a beefed-up, centerfire version of the Little Badger. Built around a blued steel receiver, the Big Badger can – just like its little rimfire brother – fold down exactly in two for more convenient transportation or safe storage, going down from 89 cm (circa 35”) in overall length to exactly half that, approximately 45 centimeters or 17.½”.
Chiappa’s Big Badger rifles are minimalist in construction and operation, with a single-action trigger, an external hammer that can be raised at half-cock position for safe transportation of the gun with a round in chamber, and a cross-bolt manual safety for good measure. The stock is just a bent metal tube assembly with a black synthetic buttplate and a synthetic adjustable cheek riser. The handguard is also manufactured out of black polymer, and features full-length MIL-STD 1913 Picatinny rails at 6-o’clock and 12-o’clock and M-LOK slots at 3-o’clock and 9-o’clock position.
Big Badger rifle: .30-30 Win or .350 Legend
Big Badger shotgun: .410 caliber
5 shots group at 50 meters, with the Chiappa Big Badger .30-30 Winchester version
All variants come with a 508 mm / 20” barrel, available in three chamberings: .30-30 Winchester, with a 1:12” twist rate; .350 Legend, with a 1:16” twist rate; and a smoothbore .410-gauge variant, with a 76mm / 3” chamber. All models feature an automatic extractor that springs up as the barrel breaks open.
The rifled-bore .30-30 Winchester and .350 Legend models come without any sights of sort, leaving it to the users to install their favorite irons or optical sights on the top Picatinny rail; they also feature a threaded muzzle, allowing the use of accessories such as flash hiders, muzzle brakes or (where legal) silencers. The .410-gauge smoothbore model comes instead with a fixed front red fiber-optic sight, and is threaded for Beretta/Benelli’s MobilChoke MC3 chokes.
The low overall weight (2,4 kg / 5.3 lbs for the smoothbore variant, 2,5 kg / 5.5 lbs for the rifled bore variants) and the choice of calibers – the “universal” .30-30 Winchester and .410-gauge vs. the newer “American” straight-wall .350 Legend – make the Big Badger one of the best all-rounders in Chiappa’s catalog, outclassing the Little Badger in terms of performance against big game and on longer range. And the starting price (€350 in Europe, $219.26 in the United States) is extremely affordable. This is what we call “a good buy”.
Chiappa Firearms Big Badger: the Badger, all grown up