Charter amrs bulldog 44

I am thinking about getting myself a bulldog. What you all think about it? Any good or bad experiences?

I have one. Nifty little snubbie for what they are. Concealable and significantly more powerful than a 38 Special. Action can be stiff when new. Cycle it while empty a few hundred times and it will smooth out. Carry mine in a IWB Kramer horesehide holster - works great.

Wow! .44 Bulldog! excuse me while I have an 80's flashback!

I went though about 3. Wish I had kept the last one, as it was the perfect snubbie. Unfortunately, the transfer bar broke, and I didn't feel like fixing it. Charters are not built to work on, they are pinned together. Doesn't mean they can't be worked on, just that it is much more difficult than some thing that is held together by screws, like a Smith & Wesson,

If you stick with genuine .44 Special loads, they will last pretty good. If you load them warm/hot, they tend to shoot loose. At least this has been my experience. They were produced with a variety of grip styles. Some were better than others. The people that favored the small undercover style grips on the Bulldog were masochists.

The relatively long, mildly finger grooved grips worked very well in my opinion.

I don't know anything about the new ones. I see them at gun shows, and they look rougher than the old ones. Of course, age has a tendency to do that to people. The old Charter Arms made some decent guns. I had a 3" Undercover that would hit a quart oil can. (motor oil used to come in cardboard cans with metal endcaps), at 50 yards 3 out of 5 shots. I did this more than once, and more than once for money. Nearly paid for the gun that way. The old Charter Arms would lock up more like a Colt than a Smith & Wesson, this may have helped their accuracy.

If you stick with some thing like Winchester Silver Tips, the Bulldog will last a long time. The Silver Tip 200 grain hollow point was a decent load, producing a bit over 700 FPS from a 3" barrel, and usually exhibiting some expansion. I do believe it is still available.

If you handload, don't hot rod it.

Stainless Charters used to be crap. Don't know about new ones.
I'm sure you'd be happier with a round butt K frame grip on a N frame.

Probably a good choice for a defensive weapon if you had to use a wheelgun. I did see one with a problem in the gripframe/grip panel interface. Tightening the attachment screw drilled right through the opposite panel. This was a mismatch between the screw length and the bushing it threaded into. I am unaware as to the provenance of the grip and screw. It may have been a factory problem or an aftermarket messup.

I hate to see limited choices in any handgun segment, as some people don't care for Tauri, leaving pretty much only Charter for a 44 spl. That or one of the overpriced Smith and Wessons, all of which I've examined having been unsatisfactory.

I've owed three in the past 20 years.

The first one I got as a backup weapon for Desert Storm. We had no issued sidearm, and I wanted something small enough to smuggle over there, and still pack a punch for any trench work. I felt a lot better having the Bulldog in a pounch on my web belt. I"d have smuggled it back, but the Army got parinoid about guys bringing back trophys so we often had shakedowns, so I burried it out in the sand. Rest well my Dog.

The second one I bought was used, mid 90's, and had not been taken very good care of. I had an issue with the cylinder latch, bought some spare parts and fixed it, then sold it.

About 3 years ago I bought another one, in stainless, and the quality is much better than the second one. I've fired it 3 times I think - no issues, accurate, not bad recoil. I have a Crimson Trace laser grip on it, and it's a nice package. The big bore is an eyefull looking down the wrong end of it, and that plus the laser I think would stop just about all transgressors.

It's hard to find a good belt holster for it, as ones for J-frames are too small. A holster maker I know made a good one, photo below. Cost was like 60 bucks or something reasonable.

They're not a lot of money - mid 300's. Buy, try, either keep or sell for about the same if you don't like it.

I have a Rossi copy of the Bulldog.
It's easy to carry in a pocket or tackle box.

I too have an older Rossi 720.
Mine has been a great little revolver.
Dave N

If you buy a new Charter and have problems, just send it back to the factory, they will take care of you.

I recently bought a Target Pathfinder that had some issues.

They sent me a call tag for return shipping, replaced the gun, and shipped me a new one.

The new gun has been really fun and accurate.

I began my law enforcement career in February of 1985, as a city police officer of a mid-size suburb of San Antonio, Texas. At the time, my gross monthly salary was $1250. It took me several month of saving to put together enough money to buy a Charter Arms Bulldog Pug in 44. It took another month or two of saving to buy a couple of 50-round boxes of Winchester Silvertips (believe it or not, pistol ammo actually came in 50-rd boxes back then). Three years later, I finally got hired as a State Trooper, and moved up to a S&W Model 60, which was the "gold standard" of odd-duty guns at the time. Since then I've stuck to 5-shot revolvers as off-duty guns, and have since sold that old Bulldog. I really wish that I would have kept it. I shot a lot of rounds through that old revolver before I traded/sold it. It was always very accurate and reliable. I would pay double it's value to have that old revolver back today.

What type of issues did you have with your target model? I'm thinking of getting one with a 4" barrel as a hunting sidearm

A .44 Bulldog was my very first CCW piece, many years ago.

No experience with the newer/current ones, but I have good service out of the older ones.

Last one I had was an older model that had been Mag-Na-Ported by the previous owner and I got inot it cheap, good shooter but I let a buddy who really liked it talk me out of it.

It had too much cylinder gap, and was shaving lead on two chambers.

I knew what I was getting into and decided to take a chance on an "economy" revolver from American company.

I don't care for Taurus, and the used Smith 63 5" guns are expensive and hard to find.

For $325 it's a good kit gun.

I'm a huge .44 Special fan and recently picked up a new Bulldog Pug .44 Special. You know, one of those guns you can't buy here in MA. I paid $280 NIB.

I've shot some of my reloads, which are not hot, just a standard .44 Special loading and some Federal LSWCHP defensive loads. IMO, if you want a .44mag, buy a .44mag. People hot-rodding .44 Special reloads is what got the S&W 696 discontinued.

My Bulldog Pug shoots about 3.5" at 25 yards. There is a fair amount of creep in the SA trigger so shooting tight groups is a little difficult. But it's not made for target shooting. It's more than accurate enough for defensive use. The fit and finish is OK. It's not up to the quality of older S&W's, but I'd buy a new Charter Arms before a new S&W with the internal lock that's going to get someone killed (I had one lock up on me).

There were some burrs in the tube over the ejector rod which was preventing it from completely ejecting the cases. I used a countersink to remove the burrs and it works perfectly now.

I will be using their warranty service, though. I experienced two light primer strikes. I can't have a revolver that might give me a light primer strike. But from the post above, it appears that Charter Arms backs their products, so I'm confident I'll get it back in safe, working order.

Since it's a defensive revolver, I will be swapping out the rubber grips to something smooth that will not snag on my clothes and will buy a quality IWB holster, like an Andrews Leather MacDaniel II. After I have Karl Sokol at Chestnut Mountain Sports smooth out the action a little and chamfer the chambers, and get Charter Arms to correct the light primer strike issue, I can definately see this being my primary carry gun.

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