Charter Arms...school me.

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All this talk about Charters made me have to go grab another one. :D

Actually, I stumbled across it at my LGS for a good price and couldn't pass it up.

It's a "Police Bulldog" 4" chambered for .38 special, and was made in the Stratford factory.

Beautiful condition, and appears to have barely ever been fired. It will fit in to my collection nicely.

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They are meant to be carried a lot and shot a little. I have had half a dozen .44 Bulldogs and wore my first one out. If you put a few boxes a year through one it will hold up just fine. They are reliable. I carry one often in the Summer and would bet my life on it. Just don't expect it to hold up to thousands of rounds.
 
The new ones are fine...and there is nothing lacking in the stainless models. I sometimes carry a 44 Pug and my wife recently got a Lavender Lady 38 Special.

These were never built to be daily range or target work firearms...they were designed to be carried often.

They are reliable...simple...and go bang when they are supposed to.

We have other firearms for shooting mass quantities of lead.

I have a S&W 696 and she has a S&W 65 Ladysmith...they get shot a lot.




oh...yes, we have many others as well, just referencing the S&Ws due to caliber analogy.
 
I have a charter arms undercover that I got when my Mom passed away. Dad had bought it used for her from an estate auction, good little gun. But for some reason it seems that the cylinder release needs adjusted, doesn't quite push ejector rod out all of the way, have to pull it a very little bit to get the cylinder out. Any ideas on adjusting it to work properly? It's a nice little gun, was my Mom's purse and nightstand gun. Not shot a lot, but not taken care of very well either, has some surface issues from where my Mom would hold it and then not wipe it down. Its not my favorite gun, but it has so much sentimental value, never sell it. I also have the S&W model 60 I bought for my Dad for Fathers day one year, its SS and a really nice gun. Again inherited it when Dad passed away. Again, too much sentimental value to ever get rid of it and it has no lock on it.
 
Well, I wasn't planning on carrying the Undercover .38, was going to keep them both in the house. I have a little Kel-Tec P32 that I keep in my work van. Is small, discreet, disappears in a pocket, and is 7 rounds. Long story short, yesterday I had a situation where I felt the need to quietly unholster it and chamber a round...and it jammed !! So then I had to rack it and clear it and maintain situational awareness, the whole time thinking to myself "this wouldn't happen with my little .38". So, breaking down the Kel-Tec for a thorough cleaning and change in ammo, but I think another .38 purchae is in the works and is going to be my new truck gun.
 
I just bought a 70's charter arms undercover .38 special yesterday. Produced in the second factory, Stratford, CT. According to what ive seen and specifically .32 magnum's postings, I think this will be a nice pistol.

I got to check out two of these at the pawn shop I was at, and both required the extractor plunger to be pulled towards teh front to swing the cylinder out, I dont know if this is by design or if adjustment is needed, maybe some of the guys here with more experience know?

Also, what about IWB holsters and speed loaders? S&W model 10 stuff work best?
 
Remove the grip panels and take the coil spring tension off the hammer by cocking it then pinning it and the pivot ball rod in place with a small finishing nail. There is a hole in the rod that allows that. Remove the hammer screw in the frame and simply pull the hammer out the top of the gun...put new hammer in...replace screw...and reposition the spring and pivot ball...remove small nail.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a Ruger.
 
A five-round speedloader for the S&W M60 and other J-frame five-shooters will fit the Charter Arms Undercover. I have one (one HKS loader; two Undercover revolvers.) Holsters also for the J-frame snub will be fine. Not the model 10; that's a bigger-frame gun with a six-round cylinder.
 
I also have an older model. Nice little gun. Solid, fun to shoot, accurate. Countless rounds thru it and still tight.
CA38left1.jpg
 
I have the Undercover Southpaw and I love it! I bought it just over a year ago and have put several hundred rounds through it without a single problem. And that included fifty +P rounds in rapid succession. I just find the +P rounds to be too punishing to my hand due to the lightness of the gun.

DCP00454.gif
 
I've been looking at both the southpaw and the 9mm. I have to get them both side by side and see if I can swap cylinders. A 9mm southpaw revolver would be awesome. Then my wife could have the .38 cylinder and the right handed frame.

Anyone know if that would work?
 
Kaeto said:
Won't work due to the ejector shroud opening being on the wrong side.
Click to expand...
I know the cylinder swing arm wouldn't be able to be swapped. Just the cylinder itself. I'm not a revolver guy, only mildly curious, so I might not be following the terminology here.

Although, for some reason I'm really digging the OD/ Black tiger striped .38
 
A .38 barrel can't be used as .38 converts to 9.36 mm. And 9 mm is .35 inch so you'd have to swap the 9mm barrel and the slot in the barrel for the axis pin would be on the wrong side.
 
gotcha. well so much for that idea.

I'd like to get a wheel gun as a bug, but really don't want to stock another caliber. The 9mm was promising, but as a lefty, it's just not gonna cut it. I like single actions due to the fact that the loading port is on the right side. Makes them easier for a lefty.

Come on Charter, make a 9mm Southpaw in OD/ Black tiger stripes!
 
Well, you got 'em for a good price, so that was good. I'd keep them around for defense and for situations where you need a small, light, cheap revolver. I certainly wouldn't shoot them much as the frames are subject to being battered, especially with +P ammo. I had a number of Charter Arms in the late 70s and early 80s, and many of them had problems binding. I loved the .44 Bulldog, but I had nothing but problems with all of them.

Back in the 70s, I saw some extremely cheap .38s that were clearly intended to be shot ONLY for defense...like a fire extinguisher. One pawnshop owner showed me one that had been fired with only six standard rounds with round-nose bullets. The forcing cone was slightly cracked at the six o'clock position and the chambers were slightly cracked in the rear. Nothing like that happened with the Charter Arms, but I did experience binding when double-action firing the gun.

Taurus revolvers were durable enough, but were very inaccurate. And Rossis were great for the price. Early on they had weird grip shapes, but I should have bought 5-6 of them. They were cheap, reliable, durable, and accurate.

I don't know how the modern Charter Arms are, but the design looks characteristically flimsy.
 
USAF-Vet, I'm a lefty, too, and also own a Charter Arms Undercover. Bought it the day I was sworn in as a LEO in 1987. (I actually have two of them, having inherited my father's circa-1966 one in 2010.)
When I was in the LE academy, there were few LH-ed instructors around, and it was some time before someone came along who knew of a tactical-reload technique we southpaws could use. I got so used to revolvers, both service and snubs, that, were I to be handed a southpaw revolver today, I don't think I would be able to figure out what to do with it.


I kind of like the idea of having one in 9mm, too, simply because there is so much available these days in the way of performance ammunition in that caliber. But, I'll never get one just because I already have the two .38s, and my EDC is a 9mm pistol.
 
Just a brief update I was at a gun shop and a kid was carrying a older charter 38. he said he liked it and was always reliable he said if he was shooting alot though the cylinder screw would loosen like others have said but he wasn't really bothered by it and that as a carry gun obviously never shot a couple boxes while carrying - made a good point. He said he wouldn't shoot +p's through it and was the only thing that he saw as a set back. In short he liked his.
 
Here's my daily carry.

It's a new-production Bulldog Pug. Easy to carry, especially with the small, wood grips (NOS Undercover grips). I carry at 4:00 in a OWB belt slide. Nice to have a big bore snubby. :)

bulldogwoodgrips.jpg


bulldog5q.jpg


bulldog4.jpg
 
David Berkowitz was partial to the 44 bulldog...Russ
Click to expand...
& it performed pretty poorly.
No doubt some blame could be placed on the ammunition - but - still a dismal performance.
 
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