Made In Italy
The story of how Italy became the home for historical reproduction firearms begins in the early 1960s, when film director Sergio Leone asked Aldo Uberti to manufacture some U.S. Civil War-era revolvers for an upcoming film about the American West called “A Fistful of Dollars.” Leone had signed virtual unknown Clint Eastwood of the television series “Rawhide” to play a gunslinger called “the man with no name.” The rest, as they say, is history. The city of Brescia, located in the Gardone Valley near the foothills of the Alps is a scenic area with a history of weapon making that dates back to the Roman Empire. Iron has been mined in the foothills above the valley for thousands of years. The Italians have been making reproduction Civil War muskets since the mid-1970s. The three primary manufacturers are Euroarms (Armi San Paolo), Armi Sport (Armi-Chiappa) and Davide Pedersoli. They have an excellent national proof house in Brescia that tests all black powder barrels coming in to Italy as well as those produced there. Hence, it is very easy to determine if a reproduction Civil War musket came from Italy based on the barrel proof marks. Pedersoli primarily offers premium-priced 18th and 19th century flintlocks and other European rifles/muskets in their black powder line. Armi Sport and Euroarms are competitors offering Civil War arms with competitive pricing and product lines. During a trip to Italy I visited the Armi-Chiappa gun-making factory near Brescia. Armi-Chiappa celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2008. The company was started by current owner Rino Chiappa’s father, Ezechiele. The first product line was non-firing replicas, blank firing signal pistols and air guns under the “Kimar” brand name. The new factory that was finished four years ago is a custom- designed facility complete with a 50-meter firing range to test products. Armi Chiappa employs about 35 people. The company is expanding the brand to include new ventures ACP, Costa Giampietro and Chiappa Firearms Ltd. Armi Sport and Kimar are already well- known brands. ACP will be devoted to providing modern shooting training systems. Costa Giampietro will concentrate on metal finishing and Chiappa Firearms Ltd. will be based in the United States to provide service and spare parts. The new name will be “The Chiappa Group.” According to Rino Chiappa, “The Armi Chiappa Company is famous all over the world for the quality of the products, but often the final consumers are confused as to the names of the companies. For this reason we have wanted to add the word ‘group,’ which gives the immediate idea that more brands exist under the same family.” Rino Chiappa and his wife, who served as translator, discussed the state of the U.S. Civil War hobby and the reproduction firearm business, as well as where they see the historical reproduction firearms business heading. What was the first reproduction musket produced for the U.S. Civil War market? They asked us to produce a musket for the growing Civil War reenacting hobby, so we first did the U.S. 1861. However, the 1853 Enfield is far and away the top seller in our Civil War product line. The U.S. 1861 Springfield is the second best seller, and the 1842 Springfield smoothbore being a strong third in popularity. When you say “top seller in the Civil War product line” what do you mean? Compared to the non-firing replicas? Well, the total sales of the U.S. Civil War rifles and muskets have been on the decline for several years. Our overall best sellers are currently the post-Civil War “cowboy/Western” and other cartridge firearms. In fact during your tour, the first work-station you saw was one of our engineers using his computer to scan and measure original lever-action rifle components for future production. The guns of the American West have overtaken our Civil War products. Have you considered making any improvements to the historical accuracy features of your Civil War products? Particularly the pattern 1853 Enfield and U.S. 1861. This is not a big issue. The sales are not affected. We would be interested in making some improvements if they are not too expensive, though. We do not hear this from our American distributor. We did change the barrel bands on the 1853 Enfield in the beginning…based on what the distributor told us. The bands are now the correct type, right? What else do you mean to change? Well a lot actually, particularly the small parts, sling swivels, lock plate washers and markings, stock stamps, etc. The field merchants who buy from the distributor (in America) to sell later sometimes make these corrections and then charge $150 to $200 more for the weapon when they sell them at a Civil War event. Reenactors feel lucky to have an Enfield with all the corrections, though most are not all that good either. They vary, actually. It is a cottage industry of sorts, correcting the reproduction pattern 1853 Enfield. We call this “defarbing.” (Looking puzzled)…So the gun costs more to buy that way in America and it seems the one selling the Enfield to the reenactor does not want a more accurate product to the original Civil War weapon from us? So why would we make any changes? The Enfield is already our top seller. We would have to charge more for it than we do now, but would we also sell more? No, if the Enfield costs more I think we would sell only the same or less. Speaking of costs, are there any more price increases on the horizon? It seems every time you turn around the prices for reproduction Civil War muskets in the U.S. are spiraling up and up. That all depends. When the present contract is done we will make a new agreement and if it were today, it will have to be more. All the contracts with Armi-Chiappa for the Civil War reproductions are written in U.S. dollars, since our customer [Taylor’s & Company] is in the United States and uses dollars. Consequently, we are paid in dollars, not Euros which we now use here in Italy and on which my costs are based. It now takes 1.5 dollars to match one Euro, but most of the current American contracts were made when the dollar was only 1.1 to the Euro, not 1.5. That means we are receiving substantially less revenue for each weapon we sell in the United States than when the contracts were signed. Therefore, as long as the value of the dollar is so poor against the Euro and still dropping, we can reasonably expect only more price increases in the future. In summary, the tour of the Brescia factory and the conversation with the Chiappas was quite interesting. On one level it was not expected that their factory would be a facility with four or five craftsmen in period attire sitting at their workbenches, using hand tools to shape each musket part, like the gunsmiths at Colonial Williamsburg. Yet the loud, modern, computerized manufacturing plant was also somewhat unexpected. There were no mule-drawn wagons, only forklifts, to offer an analogy. The men dressed in modern T-shirts and used electric tools to put together reproductions of weapons designed 150 years ago. However, there is still a surprising combination of hand-work and computerized milling required to produce the many metal parts that make up a reproduction weapon. The arms are not slapped together using robotics on a production line. In a sense, the Civil War enthusiast today depends on Armi Chiappa and Euroarms products for Civil War reproduction arms, and likewise those companies certainly enjoy getting our business. But at this point, it appears we need their products more than they need our declining revenue. The moment of dawning comprehension was the realization of something that should have been obvious from the start: The Chiappas are NOT Americans, they are NOT Civil War hobbyists, and they are certainly NOT Civil War history buffs. They have never been to a Civil War reenactment of any kind. Their understanding of the U.S. Civil War hobby is based on attending a couple “Camo and Rambo” American gun shows. Moreover, they are the owners of a profit-driven company that has other product lines besides Civil War weapons. A few years ago, while doing research for The Civil War Musket: A Handbook for Historical Accuracy, which describes the historical feature shortcomings of reproduction firearms in exacting detail, Watchdog Editor Craig L Barry spoke to Paolo Amali, president of Euroarms Italia, SrL, about their earlier commitment to make all the historical feature corrections to their Enfield as suggested by The Watchdog in 1993. They are still looking into it. That fact should not surprise anyone once you understand that the Italian gun manufacturers work half a world away, speak a different language, live in a different culture, and are only involved in one small slice (albeit important to us) of the historical reproduction firearms market in America. |
