Posted: 10/8/2013 12:36:53 PM EDT
| My wife decided she wanted a Charter 38 snubby and bought one. I gotta say after shooting a few cylinders through it Im impressed. I mean its no Smith, but for the price we got it for ($400) I was expecting a terrible trigger and mediocre accuracy. The accuracy is good (better than my SP101) and the trigger is decent, good enough for a carry. Also the fit and finish is good too, its better than Kel Tec but again its no Smith. So I was just wondering who else has experience with Charters and if this is the norm for em these days. |
| Sold my buddy a bulldog last year and got to shoot it. It's not a Smith but accuracy was what I expected out of a snubby. I also bought my dad the Mag Pug, and he adores it. I lubed it up a little bit because the hammer was a bit gritty, but it's a lot better now. |
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Charter Saves money by bead blasting the guns instead of putting a high polish on them. I'm fine with that. I hate shiny guns for carry.
No evil-lawyer lock that will lock up and get you killed either. 
The DA triggers tend to stack a bit, but I can live with that. |
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I am in the process of buying a .357 Charter Arms target model with a four-inch barrel. I already know that it will shoot low with the front sights centered and I plan to simply file the front sight down a little after initial test firing, if necessary.
This does not bother me for the price I am paying. If I were paying twice as much for a Ruger or Smith & Wesson, I would expect perfection right out ot the box but not from this lower priced pistol. If it indexes properly and the trigger is tolerable, then fine. I will only shoot .38 special ammo in it rather than hot .357 loads, so I expect the thing to hold up o.k. I won't be using it as a carry weapon or home defense weapon, so it will just be a range gun. I have always like revolvers with four-inch barrels as they usually seem well-balanced to me. Hope this one is also. |
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I bought a used (but recent manufacture) Charter Bulldog .44 Special.
It has surprised me in a good way. The sights are way off (high front sight needs filing) but the gun simply works. Trigger pulls are very acceptable and the stock rubber grips remind me of Pachmayr Compacts. Considering what I paid I got a bargain (200 bucks). I have shot the thing a good deal with my supply of 250gr Keith bullets. I will regulate the sights to the 200gr Blazer load when I am feeling motivated and can find a sharp file. I would buy another. |
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Owned a bunch in (mostly) .44 and .357, and never had an issue-- unlike my Rugers. Had a front sight fall right off of a Security-Six! Triggers, once they work themselves in a bit, are excellent, accuracy is very good. Yes, the sights will be off with a lot of the modern (fast) ammunition, but the impact points are consistent, so once you either learn the hold or file the sights, they're great. They WILL shoot loose if you overstoke the shit out of them-- ask me how I know   . Carry a screwdriver and just tighten them up if you're going to feed them a steady diet of magnum loads. They can be some nasty little flamethrowers if you get adventurous. If they'd come out with a 6 shot .357, I'd never even look at a S&W or Ruger again. |
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I have had two .44 special Bulldogs... Sold one off like a moron, 2nd one isn't as nice the first, but best of the budget Wheelguns by far.
Triggers get smoother with use (or stones. )... Sights are minute of bad guy, not MOA.
Overall, not bad for a gun in the low dollar range. |
I've owned two .44 Charter Bulldogs; one, an old blue model that my ex sold years ago, and now a bright stainless (unlike the poster that claims they bead blast, maybe they do now but they didn't used to) older model Bulldog with a bobbed hammer. I just like the 3" tapered barrel of the older models. The trigger is a bit heavy but in a high-stress defensive situation you probably won't notice anyway.
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I found a new .44 Special Bulldog Pug at a shop for less than $400. I had to take a chance on it.
The ejector would only eject the shells about 1/8" when I first got it. I disassembled the ejector and found burrs which were not allowing it to move in the shroud. A little smoothing with emery cloth and a stone solved that problem. I'm a huge S&W revolver fan and the Charter Arms is certainly no Smith. But I really didn't expect it to be for the money. I will have to stone the action sometime. It really needs it. As it comes from the factory it feels like the action is filled with sand. Again, from a price point, I can deal with doing a little work with a stone to smooth it out. I've only shot it with my handloads using a Lyman 429421 Keith-style 245gr SWC and 4.8gr of Red Dot. It's not a hot load by any means but it's not a starting load either. It's just a pleasant load that doesn't abuse me every time I shoot. The POI is right at POA with that load at 50 feet. I brought it to the club for a late night/early morning range session with my neighbor last week and at 50 feet using this load I was tearing a ragged hole in the A-zone of an IPSC target. Again, for the money, I'm happy with it. Honestly, I wouldn't consider a .38spl or .357mag Charter Arms though. Like others have mentioned there are plenty of used PRE-LOCK Smiths out there that are better than the Charter Arms revolvers in every way. If I had a choice of a Smith with the lock or a Charter Arms, I'd take the Charter any day. I've had a Smith revolver's lock engage under recoil and I'll never trust one again for anything. |
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OP, I just took my new Charter Arms target model .357 revolver with a four-inch barrel to the range yesterday. I only shot 158-grain 38 special loads in it BUT I must say that it was accurate and the trigger pull was surprisingly good.
I'll tell you what. I would trust this as a home defense weapon with a good .357 round or a good 38 special plus p round in it if that was all I had to work with. Now, in my case, I have a Glock 21 SF on order that I hope will beome my nightstand gun though. I would say the build quality and trigger on my Charter Arms .357 model exceed that of Taurus pistols but probably not equal to Smith & Wesson pistols. |
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Quoted:
I've got a older 3" Bulldog, never had any issues with it. Got used back in the mid 80s. My DIL has one of the newer Pink Lady's. I've shot it a few years ago and no issues there either. http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/CA_Bulldog.JPG CD This appears to be the spittin image of mine. |
| I own one and sold one. had a 38 that had a really nice trigger but it was out of time slightly and I was too lazy to capitalize on the free warranty and sold it to my co-worker who sent it in and sold it once it came back (they replaced the frame, cyl, and barrel) I just recently picked up a 32 h&r in trade and the trigger is a little rough (only has 20 rounds down the pipe) waiting on die's and brass to show up to give it a spin. hoping to get it into where the 32 h&r should have been (100gr xtp @ 1100 is the goal) gonna change out the grips as well. got it for the wifey. will load it much lighter for her and slip in the full power loads for HD. |
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Quoted:
I own one and sold one. had a 38 that had a really nice trigger but it was out of time slightly and I was too lazy to capitalize on the free warranty and sold it to my co-worker who sent it in and sold it once it came back (they replaced the frame, cyl, and barrel) I just recently picked up a 32 h&r in trade and the trigger is a little rough (only has 20 rounds down the pipe) waiting on die's and brass to show up to give it a spin. hoping to get it into where the 32 h&r should have been (100gr xtp @ 1100 is the goal) gonna change out the grips as well. got it for the wifey. will load it much lighter for her and slip in the full power loads for HD. One thing about the .32s is you can shoot just about all the cartridges in it except for a few (32-20 and .327 Fed Mag) That leaves the .32 ACP (its a semi rimmed case), .32 Colt, .32 S&W, .32 S&W Long and .32 H&R Mag. CD |
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Quoted:
One thing about the .32s is you can shoot just about all the cartridges in it except for a few (32-20 and .327 Fed Mag) That leaves the .32 ACP (its a semi rimmed case), .32 Colt, .32 S&W, .32 S&W Long and .32 H&R Mag. CD Quoted:
Quoted:
I own one and sold one. had a 38 that had a really nice trigger but it was out of time slightly and I was too lazy to capitalize on the free warranty and sold it to my co-worker who sent it in and sold it once it came back (they replaced the frame, cyl, and barrel) I just recently picked up a 32 h&r in trade and the trigger is a little rough (only has 20 rounds down the pipe) waiting on die's and brass to show up to give it a spin. hoping to get it into where the 32 h&r should have been (100gr xtp @ 1100 is the goal) gonna change out the grips as well. got it for the wifey. will load it much lighter for her and slip in the full power loads for HD. One thing about the .32s is you can shoot just about all the cartridges in it except for a few (32-20 and .327 Fed Mag) That leaves the .32 ACP (its a semi rimmed case), .32 Colt, .32 S&W, .32 S&W Long and .32 H&R Mag. CD don't believe 32 colt works but yeah all the rest do. i'll stick with h&r and 32 acp(have a decent amount of these cases) I actually bought 32 acp dies for that reason. they will load all of them but the crimp, got a lee fcd for that. going to try resized 00 buckshot with the 32 acp cases under a grain or two of n310 for plinking loads. |
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Quoted:
Again, for the money, I'm happy with it. Honestly, I wouldn't consider a .38spl or .357mag Charter Arms though. Like others have mentioned there are plenty of used PRE-LOCK Smiths out there that are better than the Charter Arms revolvers in every way. If I had a choice of a Smith with the lock or a Charter Arms, I'd take the Charter any day. I've had a Smith revolver's lock engage under recoil and I'll never trust one again for anything. Took me about 20 minutes to remove the lock plug, grind the engagement lug off it, and reassemble the revolver... the first time I did it. Takes about 10 minutes now.
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| Finally... got to shoot my .44 Bulldog today. I did some reloading, 240gr SWC hardcast over 6.2 grs of Unique. Standard large pistol primers. This is an older Bulldog with a 3" barrel & Pachmayer grips. The recoil with this load was stout but not painfull, although I 'm not sure I would shoot 50 rounds at one time. At 30 feet the sights seemed dead on. As is to be expected single action was easier than double action shooting. The trigger pull was OK in my opinion, although I will now dissassemble the piece for a though cleaning. All in all I am quite happy with my Bulldog....I have coveted one since the late seventy's. |
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The charter's are hard to beat for the $$$$, A 44spl bulldog & a 38spl undercover.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t242/forrestr-photo/charterpistols.jpg |
I always wanted one of the old Pathfinders.
So instead I bought one of the newer 5" ones. Very accurate and fun to pack in the woods. The first one I got had some issues. I sent it back and they replaced it no problem. 
I removed the underlug and changed the grip to the Pachmyr Compacts. It looks and feels much better IMHO. 
The comparable 5" S&W 63 's are running $600-$700 when you can find them. |