JUNE 15-2020 UPDATE: Chiappa sent back my Rhino 40DS Friday with a comment on the work order: "Firearm inspected by gunsmith No pitting in barrel Tested with American Eagle 158gr JSP" So today I took it to Jon, my local gunsmith and we bore-scoped it. Chiappa's gunsmith failed to note the obvious problem: the bore is severely rough! It has a very poor machined finish and THAT is what appears as pitting. My Gunsmith reports that sadly this is pretty typical of Chiappa products. They are known to have machined surfaces, especially barrel bores, of poor quality. For comparison sake, we bore-scoped my carry gun, a 25-year-old Colt M1991 Commander. The bore is stock. I have never done anything to it but clean it, and run a dental pick down the grooves to remove lead fouling after experimenting with Semi-wadcutters. In comparison to the Chiappa's bore, the Colt's bore looks match grade! Even with the few rough machining marks in the Colt's bore, it is way smoother than the BRAND NEW Chiappa bore. The M1991 was a cheap 1911model sold by Colt in the 1990s. It was a $450 gun when brand new. I had Jon install a custom bushing a couple years ago and after that I shot a 5-round group with four of the holes almost touching at 15 yards, off hand with handloads. Center to center group of four rounds were .875". The flier was the fifth round, opening the group to 2". These were 185gr Hornady JHP bullets pushed by 7grains of Unique, loaded into trimmed, un-crimped, previously fired Federal cases. The M1991 is no $1,800 1911 tack-driver, but an accurate carry gun. I wonder if the $930 Chiappa 40DS will ever be as good. Jon (my gunsmith) went on to say leaving the Chiappa's bore in this rough condition would cause inaccuracy when firing the pistol. The fired bullet will scrape through the rough bore surfaces, depositing uneven copper fouling as it travels down the barrel. We saw it already already had copper fouling from the testfiring mentioned by Chiappa. (Though Chiappa failed to include the target to prove grouping...unlike when Springfield replaced the barrel in the new Stainless 1911 that had rust in the bore.) Further more, Jon remarked, Copper fouling would NOT eventually fill in the bore scratches, making the bore "smooth". So now the solution is either "Fire Lapping" the bore with special abrasive bullets to actually bring the rough machined condition of the bore's surfaces to an acceptable level of finish. Or honing the barrel with a felt bore swab and abrasive powder used for such things. I vote for the method that requires noise and recoil. I will report results. I will not do any further business with Chiappa.
How many rounds have you fired through yours? Because I haven't fired mine at all. It came this way out of the box. In my 3 decades of shooting, I've never experienced "copper build up" that left pitting in the bore. Of my current firearms, some are several years to several decades old. None of them have any red residue like this in the bore after firing copper jacketed bullets, which is what I use exclusively. And none of them have pitting in the bore after cleaning. I bought a brand new Springfield 1911in the early 2000s. It came with similar "residue" in the bore. I test-fired it at the dealer's range and it printed a huge group at 25 yards. In comparison, I also fired my carry piece, a Commander model Colt M1991, which printed a much smaller group. I notified Springfield that the barrel was rusted junk and they said to send it back. THEY did not offer to pay for the shipping to them which was $75 for 2nd Day Air. Chiappa DID pay for return shipping for the Rhino. Springfield replaced the barrel under warrantee and sent it back to me. I never got a chance to shoot it before having to part with it at a heavy loss.
Tinkerjeep Publications same, and I used wilson combat lube ii cleaner on it, just removed a bit copper, but I sent to gunsmith to clean and oil it, copper still sitting in there. Also i haven’t fired one single shot
I need to post updated vids on this as I have begun the firing and fire-lapping process. At this point it has 98 rounds through it, 50 rds of CCI 158JHP fired at 15 yards. The groups were big and inconsistent. The bore was baddly copper fouled. Then it was cleaned, and a week later a group of 18 special bore-lapping bullets, were fired through it., cleaning between each six shots. Then 30rounds of CCI 158gr JHP were fired. The latter groups remained roughly the same size as the first, spreading out a bit as firing continued. But these were fired at 25 yards. This suggests the groups are getting closer, but no where near what a brand new, $900 revolver should be able to do out of the box. Also, to remove copper-fouling my son and I found it worked best to make a bore-snake out of a plain paper towel (Viva half-sheets work best), twisting it so it's the proper diameter. Then soak the papertowel with Hoppe's Copper Solvent and snake it into the bore, making sure it contacts the entire length of the bore from forcing cone- to muzzle. Then support the pistol in a bore-level position for at least 12 hours, if not 24 hours. We pulled the paper-towel bore-snake out the next day and it was all blue, leaving the bore 95% copper free. The bore remains very rough, though better than it was. Updates to follow.
