The M1 Carbine is certainly one of the most iconic American small arms of all time; historical photos chronicling everything from the storming of D-Day to Malcolm X depict the gun in action. It’s therefore no wonder that gun companies are eager to introduce replicas of the famous Carbine. One such replica introduced recently is the Chiappa M1-9, an unusual replica in that it fires 9mm Parabellum ammunition, rather than the more common .22 LR or the .30 Carbine of the more faithful reproductions. In a recent review, YouTuber Taofledermaus doesn’t seem too impressed with Chiappa’s Carbine, however:

In the review, the rifle demonstrates inconsistent functioning with factory ammo, suffering from several failures to feed and eject, and Tao notes the rifle has an exceptionally strong return spring despite firing a fairly mild round. Besides these problems, the rifle isn’t a faithful replica to the original. A prominent bar connecting the operating rod to a counterpart on the other side of the receiver betrays that the rifle uses a simple blowback mechanism, instead of the tappet gas system and rotary bolt of the original Carbine. Unfortunately, this (for me, at least) significantly hampers ability of the Chiappa Carbine to “look the part”, and with the inconsistent functioning Tao experienced, that makes it fairly hard to recommend.