TTAG will endeavor to secure a Chiappa Triple Threat shotgun for test and evaluation. Meanwhile, I’m a bit hesitant to laud the long gun’s arrival. I went pretty big on the Rhino back in the day – only to be disappointed by a trigger heavier than Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Tractatus married to a grip that puts the go-pedal beyond my average-sized-hand’s full command and control. Still, I’m a huge fan of Stoeger’s Coach Gun for home defense. It’s an ideal firearm for newbies seeking simple in-home or business-situated personal protection. Add another barrel et voila! (Extractor? I just met her!) It’s hardly a new idea, but is it a good idea? A $1600 good idea? Your thoughts below.
I would absolutely love to have one of these but that price tag is way out of my budget range. I can barely scrape enough dough together to get a Canik Stingray.
Is it a good idea? Hell yeah.
Is it worth $1600? Unless it comes with a year of free ammo, probably not…. I mean, that kinda coin will get you a good pump action and a ton of practice ammo. Or maybe even a decent semi auto 12 gauge.
I really want to know how they justify charging that much for that firearm. Is it all hand made by artisans in a monitory somewhere, or what?
Noishkel: market forces, good sir. If the price is too high, units will be unsold and the company will have to decide whether or not to lower the price. If the guns sell, then the market says that they pegged it correctly.
True. But there still needed to be a starting point for cost here. Factoring their time, material, and overhead for the starting point then throw on the profit margins. I’m curious to know what part of that is the real driver for cost. I can’t imagine it’s the overhead and the materials are all that crazy. So does this thing just take forever to build or have they just chosen to go for a lot of profit?
Personally I’m betting that this is going to be a fairly low volume gun. So they’ll have to keep the profit margin high to recoup the cost of tooling up to build them.
What does it matter? If it’s not worth it to you, don’t buy it. If it’s worth it to you, buy it.
I purchased one and was hesitant to do so for reasons others have. After handling it I am glad I bought it and probably won’t sell it . The quality is very high . Before I bought it I figured the Chiappa triple threat would be a hokey cheaply made gun but I was wrong. These aren’t thrown together and you can see after handling one they take the time to assemble these. The wood and finish is the best I have on any gun in my collection. I had no buyers remorse whatsoever that comes when purchasing a firearm oddity . If your on the fence about purchasing one I can say you won’t regret it .
I’m no gunsmith, but I’m guessing it’s pretty difficult/time consuming to regulate three barrels to the same point of aim.
Well neither am I. But I’m not betting on that being the greatest driver of cost.
Doubles overall tend to be expensive. A Stevens single-shot can be had for less than $100, even at a gun shop. Even the low-end Stevens double is going to start at 4-5 times that, I think. So I guess a “triple’ is going to be even more. Whatever the reason, it’s to rich for my blood.
Here’s what people don’t understand about doubles (and in this case, a triple) barrel shotgun:
You effectively have multiple guns in there.
On a double (whether SxS or O/U), you’ll have two hammers, two sears, two cocking mechanisms. If the barrels have an extractor only, that reduces the complexity somewhat, but if you have ejectors for the barrels, that’s another two sets of sears, hammers and cocking mechanisms in the forearm.
Of course, you have multiple barrels. In Ye Olde Days, the barrels would be made with individual lumps on the breech end, you’d join the lumps together and then put spacers between the barrels, then you have to sweat the ribs to the barrels top & bottom.
On more modern doubles, the ribs and barrels are effectively brazed together in an atmosphere oven.
This shotgun has three barrels, three sets of lockwork controlled by one trigger, which any double owner will tell you has been a historical bit of complexity in shotguns – having two triggers was easier and cheaper to make. Each barrel is drilled and tapped for a choke. The lack of being able to select the barrel simplifies the lockwork/trigger setup, the lack of an ejector also cheapens the gun quite a bit.
Yes, this is a $1600 shotgun – that, IMO, is actually a modest price for the amount of work involved here.
I have bought one for $1330 but instead of having wood parts, it has synthetic parts with the metal finish. It is very nice. No regrets on this purchase
It’s actually made for Chiappa by a company in Turkey.
“It’s actually made for Chiappa by a company in Turkey.”
Are they called “3 Virgins”?
So now you can follow Joe Biden’s advice and still have a loaded chamber.
Did Hillbilly Santa just point a gun at me?
*shrug* $1600 is in the same ballpark as some very nice midlevel SxS/O/U shotguns, and way under what you’d spend for a nice custom drilling. Which is basically what this is, aside from having three smoothbore barrels instead of one or two of them being rifled. I imagine that helps keep the cost down to a degree.
It’s an interesting idea, but hardly new and doesn’t seem all that terribly useful. If I’m dragging the weight of three heavy barrels around, I’d rather have the option to reach out and touch bigger game and have a 12 or 20 gauge for birds along with a dual trigger setup.
YES. +1000.
Um, I think you and I have a different idea of “mid-level” guns in today’s market.
A “mid-level” SxS or O/U starts at $3K to $4K and goes up to $10 to $12K, where the “really nice” shotguns start.
I’m with you 100%. I’d love to have a modern made Drilling for less than $10K. This even having all smooth bore, you could use a sub-caliber adapter to give it some center fire use. But without the ability to do any barrel selection, that would be a worthless endeavor. This is just a waste of $1600 the way it is configured.
1600.00? Hell no, its a CHIAPPA for crying out loud.
The msrp is listed high but you can get one for a couple hundred less.
Seems like you could have a plugged hole for the hex wrench to fit through the removable rear stock instead of having to unscew the butt plate to gain access.
Too bad it cant fire all 3 at once..that would be some stopping power i’d say
Bad idea.
I still carry a COP for personal defense/last ditch. Long ago and far far away I had a secondary discharge. Imagine 4 barrels each holding a.357 mag and having two go off almost the same time! A piece of metal shaving was holding one of the firing balls against a primer. The recoil from my first shot set off the second of four barrels… I am larger than most folks and not recoil sensitive (shoot a .44 and a .454 on a regular basis) I will however admit the recoil made me re-think why I was shooting this thing. I discovered the double discharge, it’s root cause and corrected the condition. It’s easier to shoot a .500 S&W than suffer the impact of this type of discharge. I’m sure if you were on the receiving end this would have been dramatic! But: if one .357 mag does not work would two be any better? I like to choose when and where the second shot is going… Thanks
Looks like someone’s been playing too much Resident Evil. A three-barreled rifle/shotgun combo like a Drilling makes sense, but unless you lived in the U.K. and had no other way to fire a third shell in one go, you may as well spend that $1600 and get yourself a couple of decent semi-auto or pump guns instead.
I’m gonna say it: “Paying 1600 for a Chiappa is like paying 1600 for a Norinco.” Now flame me. I can take it.
Let’s see.. I can buy two to three decent semis or doubles or three to five decent pumps for that price and have three to four times the capacity or more. Hell I could buy two vepr12s for that price.
I saw “Chiappa” and somehow mentally read it as “Chipotle” – and I thought, “Oh lookee, a specialty shotgun for carry to Mexican restaurants that discourage open carry of black rifles!”
Well, the gun is kind of like a post-Chipotle experience, so there’s that.
So shotgun barrels are the new razor blades. I’ll wait for the Norinco Quattro lol
Wonder what uncle Joe Biden has to say about this high capacity shotgun?
Finally! They solved the three shots from a double barrel problem. Only 25 years after hollywood.
This thing is a joke, especially at that price.
Jimmy Dean carried a 4-barrel in the movie version of “Big John”, didn’t he?
It would be cool to have birdshot in one barrel, buck shot in another, and a slug in the last one. You would be covered for any problem that a shotgun can solve. But $1,600! No Way! This gun should cost $500 to $800 max! For $1,600 I would rather buy 3 Maverick 88s and 250 rounds of buck and 250 slugs plus 1k rounds of birdshot.
1600? hell friggin no. You want a triple threat get a damn traditional Drilling for a hell of a lot less.
Really?
Care to point me at this drilling that costs less?
Why stop at 3 barrels? Give me a six-shooter!
I don’t think it’s a good idea even at $400. To lug the extra weight to only have three shots seems silly. Most defensive pumps give you 5-8 rounds and many of them are way more economical.
AMEN to that Carl. This thing is ridiculous. I LOVE the sleek, compact nature of the ‘coach guns’ out there, with the Mossberg O/U offering probably the neatest. However, I can’t overcome my concern for the mechanical SAFETY of these arms.
Pumps can be left loaded, and UN-chambered, requiring a pump-to-the-jump. These coach designs can be loaded, but not ‘decocked’…with only a sliding safety of some kind (sear-blocking?) holding back the works. I would much rather see the external hammer designs updated with enclosed mechanisms, and easy hammers, like a typical Marlin levergun. Loaded, they could be left perfectly safe with hammers on-half-cock, and linkage designed so that only a trigger pull can release the hammer.
As to the safety issue:
I have no idea whether this triple has them, but check out what an “intercepting sear” is on a double. The H&H sidelocks and some boxlocks will have them. The only way for the hammer (or “tumbler” in English gun terms) to fall all the way from a full cock was to have the trigger pulled, which pulls the intercepting sear out of the way.
In short, there are ways to add safety against unintentional discharge to shotgun lockwork and they have been done for a long time. As with everything on doubles, it costs money.
Since I bought my KSG, not so much…
I look at it and wonder why stop at 3? Just add three more. *whispers you are almost there*
YAWN. I have a Remington 870, a Winchester 1300, a Benelli Nova, a Stoeger coach gun, and a Mossberg 500 and I paid less than that gun for ALL of them. (In fairness I won the Benelli at a DU raffle for $5) I also have a very nice Benelli SBE II that only cost me $800. The only shotgun I own that cost more than $1000 is a Beretta Silver pigeon OU.
What would have been cool and worth the $1600 is a modern day nock volley gun.
Why pay more for less? I could buy five 870s for that price
It is a neat idea though
I’ll see your Biden and raise ya by half, pahdnah…
I will wait for a four barrel shotgun, chop the barrels down to 10-12 inches and call it a day. Has been made before, will (hopefully) get made again.
1600 isn’t too much considering all the work with multiple barrel guns.
$1600!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Maybe the guys at RJF will come up with one that’s cheaper for production and feature it on the show but then again who wants to throw their money away on that outfit.
Just purchase a Mossberg 500 or Remington 870 and your choice of .45 and your home defense (including the zombie attacks) is covered.
I’m sorry to hear about your Chiappa Rhino experience. I picked one up about 3 months ago now, and I’ve had no problems with it. Granted, I’ve only been able to put 50 shots down range, but still- they corrected the god-awful trigger pull, and recoil is indeed ridiculously low- especially with .38 special.
If it is relatively well made, I’m interested. I’ve got another 4-5 gun / optic purchases to make before the rotation gets back to a shotgun. When that happens, its currently a choice between the new Ruger Red Label or this. Although I could co-opt that choice for a fine used Beretta O/U. I’m sure I could bust clays or hunt chukar and pheasant with this, even if it isn’t ideal.
I don’t have 10+ grand for the ideal sporting clays shotgun.
Weatherby Diana O/U $3K for a sporting clays gun.
Two Remington Model 11’s a Franchi SPAS, Browning BPS a couple Winchester 101’s and a Red Label all for less that this thing.
How about you buy a couple Mossberg 500 series, a 870 and an 1100 invite some buds over and have a great day you will still have change left. If you need a shotgun the Remington’s fill the need. I prefer the Browning Auto 5 (i.e. Remington Model 11) St. Browning knew what he was doing. I have an early Ruger Red Label (fixed chokes edition) from that I learned why people shot O/U shotguns.
Chaippa needs to get a clue.
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The “turkey special” version of this gun, the “Triple Tom” is a failure. I purchased one and had a gunsmith mount a Trijicon RMR sight on it. After dialing in the first shot (barrel 1), the second shot (barrel 2) shot 20 inches to the left at 40 yards. The third shot (barrel 3) split the difference at 10 inches left at 40 yards. I tried many different brands of shells and choke tubes without improvement. Contacted the company and they took the gun back to “repair” it. After 8 months, they sent me a different gun, couldn’t fix the first one. Although better, shot #2 is still 8 inches left at 40 yards. Barrels 1 and 3 are close enough. Contacted company again, multiple times, and now they will not even respond to me. The Triple Threat as a home defense gun would be OK as the shots would be closer. But the Triple Tom, the Triple Crown and the Triple Magnum, as specialty guns, will not regulate and , as such, are failures for their intended usage.
I would love to have one but I bought a Ruger SP101, Mossberg 590 A1, Stoeger double defense for less. Had this been around $800 I would have bought this instead of the other shotguns as I’m sure a lot of others would. It’s totally cool, just couldn’t justify it after looking at a lot of other guns.
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