Replicas of historic firearm designs always were, and still are, the core business of the Italian-based Chiappa Firearms company – a brand so increasingly popular in north America that it recently had to open a subsidiary in Dayton (Ohio, U.S.A.) to handle the U.S. and Canadian markets.

The Chiappa Firearms group is still undergoing an almost decade-long phase of innovation in concepts and manufacturing: a true revolution that refreshed the company's view of the needs and tastes of modern hunters, sport shooters, collectors, and gun enthusiasts at large. Hence why the Chiappa Firearms product catalogue was recently enriched by several firearms that combine a classic design with a marked spirit of versatility that can entice a wider plethora of customers if compared to how Chiappa's own classic products used to fare in the past.

The Chiappa 1892 Trapper Skinner lever-action carbine is one of those classic yet versatile products: a shorter, lighter weight modern version of Winchester's legendary lever action rifle that revolutioned the metallic cartridge repeating arms market in the late 19th Century and went on to become a true icon of the gun industry in the following decades.

The Chiappa 1892 Trapper Skinner lever-action carbine takes is aptly named, given its very compact design – a 16-inch barrel, perfect for brush or battue hunting – and given the use of a Skinner adjustable rear peep sight and a front interchangeable-blade, fiber-optic sight. Skinner sights are manufactured in the State of Montana, mostly conceived for Marlin rifles and carbines, and are described by the manufacturing company as "unexpensive, but not cheap". And that's exactly what they are: affordable, solid, and very accurate.

What tells the Chiappa 1892 Trapper Skinner apart from many other lever-action rifles and carbines of U.S. or south American manufacture is its average quality: we are not talking about a "collector piece", yet, much of the final controls at Chiappa Firearms are still made by hand, particularly when it comes to the company's classic product line. The Mod.1892 Trapper Skinner lever-action carbine is one of Chiappa's highest end companies, and is priced accordingly.

The Chiappa 1892 Trapper Skinner lever-action carbine is 863,6 mm (34") and comes with a 406,4 mm (16") barrel. This makes it just long enough to be classified as a rifle, rather than as a "Short Barrel Rifle", by the local, State and Federal gun laws in the United States.

In 2017, John Moses Browning's lever-action rifle design enters its 125th year. Despite its iconic status – mostly due to the massive use of Winchester 1892 rifle variants in western-themed films – when the design was launched on the market, the American Frontier had long disappeared. It however served in more or less significant numbers with the American military during the Spanish-American war in Cuba and during the repression of the Moro rebellion in the Philippines; in the early 20th Century, the design was also a favorite of Pancho Villa's Mexican rebels. Today, it enjoys a well deserved cultural icon status.

Chiappa's 1892-series rifles are among the best Winchester-based lever action rifles available on the commercial market, and the 16" Trapper Skinner carbine is by far the most practical and versatile of all. If you're looking for a lever-action rifle, consider the Chiappa 1892 Trapper Skinner carbine. It's definitely more expensive than a Rossi or a Taurus, but it's worth every penny.