Which revolver? Charter Arms - Rossi

Which of the two revolver linked to below will be more reliable?

  • The Charter Arms Revolver

    Votes: 16 20.5%

  • The Rossi Revolver

    Votes: 62 79.5%
  • Total voters
    78
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This is a good question! :)

I voted Rossi. Though I have a couple of 30-year old Charter Arms revolvers, which have proven to be fully satisfactory, I just don't have any confidence in the new manufactured stuff which is what was linked.

Not that I have a lot of confidence in Rossi either, but if I were buying one of the two, that's what I'd choose. I guess I trust the Rossi design more.

I can't wait to see how this poll comes out. :)
 
Reliability I'm not sure on. The Rossi is a bit more of a known quantity though. You're getting a forged steel frame & barrel, and (if the pictures are correct) a machined trigger and a machined hammer with hammer mounted firing pin. All of this is made using a pretty well established method.

How well either the new Charters or current Rossi are made is the real question. I'd take a chance on the Rossi first though.
 
This is a hard question. I have had two Charter Arms revolvers, an undercover and a Pathfinder. Both were good. The Pathfinder should have been a keeper, but both of those were bought in the 80's and were used when purchased so probably made in the early 80's or late 70's. I have read all the complaints and comments about their spotty quality control over the last decade or so but have no personal experience with the newer ones to comment on. As for the Rossi I have fired an older one which was a copy of the S&W Chief Special (not sure the model). The cylinder would pop out and was out of time in a short span, not safe. This was quite a few years ago. On the other hand we have a Rossi model 511 in .22 lr in the family which shoots great. It is a very nice trail gun. Basically a 4" J frame with adjustable sights, similar to a S&W Kit gun. The recent Rossi's I have handled seem to be very well made and look like decent offerings for the price. Being a big fan of the .44 special I have been tempted to pick up an offering from either make in that caliber to wring out but have yet to do so. I will be interested to hear from others who have recent experience with both, from what I have seen they are probably both a little under rated. Bill
 
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by the way...

The Charter ad linked by the original poster:

http://www.charterfirearms.com/products/Charter_Police_Undercover.html

... at the top says: Legal... Affordable

I can understand them promoting the guns as being 'Affordable'. But what's with that 'Legal' bit? What an odd thing to say!

Is that a selling point that the revolvers are legal? They're more affordable than many others, but are they more legal? :p

What are they talking about? :confused:
 
Rossi

my vote goes to the Rossi model 88, which is an all stainless-suare butt- 2"
barrel .38 Special. My wife has been carrying one of these as her personal
self defense weapon since late '94; with nairy a problem. It shoots just as
good as my S&W (old model) 60 .38 Special snubby~! :scrutiny:;):D
 
Never had a Rossi, but I did have a Charter Arms Undercover, back in the 80s. The trigger would drag on the cylinder latch, and not always return to DA position. I removed the cylinder latch and used the cyl pin to open the cylinder. It was my least favorite of several 2" revolvers I have owned.
 
I've owned examples of both, only one Charter, 6 Rossis. I didn't like the Charter, inaccurate, timing a little off, but it shot okay. The Rossis I've owned have been better. I had a firing pin issue with a 971, but got that fixed. The one thing I'd watch with Rossis is firing pin issues. I've heard others having a pin snap. But, it only happened one one out of six that I owned. I sold my old M88 when I got my Taurus 85UL. That one had probably 6K rounds though it, some mild +P even though it wasn't rated for +P. It was tight and perfectly timed when I sold it, rugged all stainless gun. It had some tooling marks on it here and there like under the hammer, wasn't REAL pretty, but it worked well. All the Rossis have been pretty accurate and I still have two examples, an old 68 3" that's way above average in fit and finish and a really accurate little .22 M511.

That Charter undercover just didn't impress me at all. I sold it. I ordered that one. If I'd checked it out at the gun shop before buying, I never woulda bought it due to a couple of cylinders that were slightly out of time. They'd click in, but if you slowly squeezed the trigger DA, the sear dropped the hammer before it locked the cylinder. That bugged me even though it fired okay. I think that might have been why the thing didn't shoot all that well, too, though it was acceptable for self defense.
 
Both my experiences with snub nosed revolvers were with rossi's and chart arms. The fit of the charter was just not as good as i expected. The trigger wasnt very good (da).

The rossi snub nose i have is perfect. 100% reliable and the trigger pull is very very crisp and smooth.
 
Of the two, in my limited experience with them, Rossi.

I have a Chater Arms Bulldog. Very accurate, terrible double action, OK single action, cylinder rod always shaking loose. I still have it though. :)
 
They both would be absolutely reliable if you put either one of them in a heavy wool sock, then started swinging them around as an impact weapon.....otherwise go for a Taurus, Ruger, S&W. You only have to buy quality once.......
 
Thank you for the comments so far, they are a help.

I don't want to sound ungrateful but why oh why does this happen every time I ask a question? I specifically asked everyone NOT to discuss other revolvers but as usual, I'm told to buy something else. I'm not talking about those who used other revolvers to compare the ones I asked about because that's fine, just the ones who disregarded my request. I guess it's just a symptom of today's permissive society.

I didn't ask if either revolver was safe to carry, I didn't ask if I should buy something else. I KNOW a S&W is better, I own several. All I asked was OF THE TWO, which would be more reliable.

I truly appreciate the input and I'm not even disputing the validity of the answers, I just wish for once my requests would be honored.
 
I have no experience with the Charter, but I have an old Rossi M68 3" .38 that has been nothing but great. I wouldn't part with it for anything.

Rossi gets my vote.
 
Get the Charter Arms, I agree with you too I have asked advice on a firearm only to get a suggestion for something else, I don't have any Exp with rossi but charter seems to be pretty mainstream so I'd say its a good bet.
 
I was hoping to get opinions from shooters who have bought the newer Charter Arms revolvers. As we all know charter Arms seemed to fall off the Earth for a while. Now that a new management is in place I was wondering about the quality control.

Rossi always had a fair reputation but now that they are a separate entity of Taurus I'm guessing the financial backing of Taurus could only make Rossi better.
 
I believe Rossi is now owned by Taurus. I seem to remember reading that somewhere.
Here it is:

In December of 1997 BrazTech International L.C. was created as the exclusive importer of Rossi firearms in North America. Previously, Rossi firearms were distributed by Interarms of Alexandria, Virginia. Rossi manufactures its classic rifles in a plant in Sa Leopoldo, Brazil and will continue operations there, selling many firearms outside the United States and North America.

At the same time, Forjas Taurus, S.A. purchased the rights and the equipment to manufacture Rossi handguns. Taurus manufactures three models of .38 Special revolvers and four models of .357 Magnum revolvers under contract with Rossi. Revolvers sold by BrazTech with the Rossi name are manufactured in a brand new facility owned by Taurus in SaoLeopoldo, Brazil. Much of the tooling and many of the machines were acquired from Rossi during negotiations between the companies.

Today's Rossi is still run by the same family and they put the same dedication and innovation into every firearm. At Rossi, it is more than just building guns...it is a family's history and tradition.
Click to expand...

jw
 
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Rossi always had a fair reputation but now that they are a separate entity of Taurus I'm guessing the financial backing of Taurus could only make Rossi better.
Click to expand...

Yeah, my Charter was an 80s model and they've been up and down quality and financially. Rossis seemed to slack a little in the early 90s in finish quality, lots of tooling marks. My old 68 is from early 80s and it's frankly and honestly hard to tell it from a Smith and Wesson in finish and fit. The thing is awesome, why I've kept it, quite accurate. The Rossis I've seen post Taurus buy out have returned to that quality. I'm quite impressed and might go for a 462 in the future considering Academy has 'em for a little over 300 bucks. I'm going to sell my SP101 back to my son-in-law per agreement. The gun was really collateral on a loan way I looked at it. He loves the gun, wants it back, but he's in Iraq until next summer and can't use it anyway, LOL. They gave him an M16 over there, far more effective.

Anyway, even new Charters I'd be a little skeptical of considering past history, but I've not laid hands on a new one so that advice is worth what you paid for it, LOL!

Neither,

Get a S&W or Ruger.
Click to expand...

Obviously didn't read past the title, and after all that effort in your post. :rolleyes:

LOL
 
I had a Rossi 46202 and it was a good gun, always went bang when I pulled the trigger, but sometimes it was hard to open the cylinder to eject the spent casings. But it did shoot to POA. Thats why I voted Rossi.
 
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