Brand new Charter Arms Undercover - Not Pleased at all

TTv2 said:

Has the OP tried different ammo and gotten the same result with whatever ammo he shot?

Charters can have a break in period and I'd advise getting snap caps and dry firing 500 or 1000 times. Any burrs that might be in the firing pin channel or on the transfer bar or hammer/hammer slot will get knocked down and reduce any potential drag.

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I predict, the transfer bar will break at about 800 dry fires.

lee n. field said:

I predict, the transfer bar will break at about 800 dry fires.

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Even with snap caps?

Dry guns dont run. Make it wet. Try again.

As always, my assumption with any new revolver is that it will need to be fixed, and I always add in the cost of a trip to the gunsmith to the price tag.

Of course, that can essentially double the cost of a low-end gun...

thunderbyrd - Did you call Charter's Customer Service # yet?

Guns are tricky, because if they don't work you can't just return them.

thunderbyrd said:

there was a used SP101 and i wish i had spent another 150 bucks and brought it home instead.

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Yes, you should have. The SP101 is more than $150 better, even used.
I have no doubt Charter will fix the gun. The dealer should take care of that for you. If not I'd take my business somewhere else.

It isn't the oil of lack of it either. I have several revolvers including a CA. Every one of them would fire if they were bone dry or dripping oil.

JERRY said:

lee n. field said:

I predict, the transfer bar will break at about 800 dry fires.

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Even with snap caps?

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yes.

lee n. field said:

I predict, the transfer bar will break at about 800 dry fires.

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Happened to mine, but that was without snap caps.

Yes, Charter's transfer bars are some hella cheap MIM crap.

I purchased a new Pink Lady Pathfinder 4in ,22lr. It shot well, was accurate, no light strikes etc. however, would not eject anything with hand pressure!! I had to use the edge of the loading bench to depress the extractor rod! I tried four different types of ammo, all the same. I called Charter, they sent me a label and I sent it back. i am waiting to hear from them now!

SnakePleskin said:

I purchased a new Pink Lady Pathfinder 4in ,22lr. It shot well, was accurate, no light strikes etc. however, would not eject anything with hand pressure!! I had to use the edge of the loading bench to depress the extractor rod! I tried four different types of ammo, all the same. I called Charter, they sent me a label and I sent it back. i am waiting to hear from them now!View attachment 1119419 View attachment 1119420

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Seems like a simple polishing of the chambers will fix this, we can only hope.

As mentioned call the company They are supposed to have good CS
If I was behind the counter, I would not have talked you out of that gun especially for the reason you mentioned. A light small revolver is not easy to learn to shoot and I doubt you wife would like it.
Plus I see no reason for anyone to buy a CA. No offense, but there are to many other guns out there.

My undercover had some wobble ( what I thought was too much) they fixed it and gave the gun a tune up. Shoots great and the CS was pretty good. Owner is an awesome dude. I messed up the grip panel making speedloader clearance. The owner gave me a new set NC. I’m a customer for life. My lil CA goes with me everywhere. Love it. Turnaround time was like 2 weeks. This was all pre pandemic

TTv2 said:

Has the OP tried different ammo and gotten the same result with whatever ammo he shot?

Charters can have a break in period and I'd advise getting snap caps and dry firing 500 or 1000 times. Any burrs that might be in the firing pin channel or on the transfer bar or hammer/hammer slot will get knocked down and reduce any potential drag.

It doesn't surprise me to hear of light strike issues, this seems to be a widespread problem with Charter revolvers since Covid and it seems Charter has a cookie cutter approach with their repair process where they'll just slap in new parts and hope it works. I assume the issues are stemming from new employees who can't catch production issues and fix them because they don't know how or aren't paying attention and management is shipping product out the door regardless of quality because they have bills to pay and being the small company they are they can't junk a night's worth of work.

For as bad as I want a cheap DA .22 snub and how many have suggested Charter, I won't touch them, at least not any new ones. I'm glad the few I have work, but they're older than me, so that's why.

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Dry fire a Charter 500-1000 times?!

I would not expect my 2021 Bulldog to survive that.

Seriously.

Bought mine new, locked up when I got home. Charter paid shipping. Barrel was also canted. They replaced barrel, now canted the other way. They replaced some of the guts, too.

I fired 15 rds before having a light strike. All Federal primers. But it shot point of aim.

I installed a Wolff extra power hammer spring. Hits much harder! Made trigger pull heavy, too. Not going to fire it.

Will sell or trade cheaply with disclosure this gun isn't meant to last but a few boxes of the easiest cowboy loads. This isn't a gun one can practice or train with.

Shivahasagun said:

Dry fire a Charter 500-1000 times?!

I would not expect my 2021 Bulldog to survive that.

Seriously.

Bought mine new, locked up when I got home. Charter paid shipping. Barrel was also canted. They replaced barrel, now canted the other way. They replaced some of the guts, too.

I fired 15 rds before having a light strike. All Federal primers. But it shot point of aim.

I installed a Wolff extra power hammer spring. Hits much harder! Made trigger pull heavy, too. Not going to fire it.

Will sell or trade cheaply with disclosure this gun isn't meant to last but a few boxes of the easiest cowboy loads. This isn't a gun one can practice or train with.

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What model you get?

From my experience and what I've seen online, it seems least garbage gun Charter makes is the Professional .32 or .357 Mag and other than the sights I don't see people complaining about quality.

thunderbyrd said:

the plan was working fine til i actually fired the gun.

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At least you tested and fired the gun before depending on it for self-defense. Send it back for a warranty claim.

I sent my old stainless .38 Undercover that I bought back in 1981 and had them install one of their spurless hammers. My daughter really liked the gun but felt the hammer may catch on clothing. The gun came back with the new hammer and we had both light strikes and the hammer binding up and not completing the full stroke. Sent it right back to them at my expense, they wouldn’t cover return shipping, and waited two months for the gun. When I finally got the gun back, it was worse than it was when I received it with the new hammer. Got so bad you could not shoot it. Called them again and when they told me I had to pay shipping again. That was enough for me. Installed the original hammer and sold it. I’m done with them, bought her a S&W 638.

TTv2 said:

What model you get?

From my experience and what I've seen online, it seems least garbage gun Charter makes is the Professional .32 or .357 Mag and other than the sights I don't see people complaining about quality.

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The snub .44 with shrouded hammer.

TTv2 said:

What model you get?

From my experience and what I've seen online, it seems least garbage gun Charter makes is the Professional .32 or .357 Mag and other than the sights I don't see people complaining about quality.

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That's because very few of them are out there relatively speaking

Hi everyone, long time lurker here and first time poster. I bought a new Charter Arms Off Duty hammerless around a month ago and love the little thing so much I felt necessary to log on here and defend it. I've put around 200 rounds of relatively hot reloads/factory ammo and some +P through it so far, dry fired it for sometimes an hour a day every day (I use snap caps), rain it in -10f degree weather (before wind chill) and I've had zero issues with it. Maybe I just got lucky but I'd say this is the best $350 firearm purchase I've made in a long time and I much prefer it to any Taurus/Rossi/RIA that I could have had for the same price.

I’ll say this.. I’d be heartbroken if I had a pretty M66 stolen. Wouldn’t be too upset if the CA met the same fate. If it’s in my tool bag and accidentally got wet/ rusty.. meh. No biggie. As long at it functions it’s got my trust. Goes south for some reason I’d have em fix it. If that didn’t work then I’d sell/trade. I think the company on the whole, is solid

Reading all of the problems with Charter Arms and how many folks have had to return them for warranty work it begs the question: wouldn't it just be cheaper to build the damn things right in the first place? My gosh, they have to be spending a fortune in shipping and repairing all these guns that come back. Just taking a guess but it seems like 70% of the folks on this thread have had to send a Charter back for warranty repair.

American Finn said:

Reading all of the problems with Charter Arms and how many folks have had to return them for warranty work it begs the question: wouldn't it just be cheaper to build the damn things right in the first place? My gosh, they have to be spending a fortune in shipping and repairing all these guns that come back. Just taking a guess but it seems like 70% of the folks on this thread have had to send a Charter back for warranty repair.

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70% of a forum that encompasses about 2% of the total buyers of Charter revolvers. The reality of Charters is they're the cheapest DA revolvers that are currently readily available and have been for almost 3 years now. Taurus at times can be as low in price, but that's only for a few models and at a time Taurus is more interested in producing semi autos while with Charter all they make is revolvers, thus store shelves will have more of them than Taurus and probably at a lower price.

So, given the low price and ease of availability, the Charters are selling to a certain low income consumer or first time gun buyer. A lot of them will never shoot their Charter, some may put a few rounds thru to see if it works, and then it to gets put in the sock drawer to not be seen again for 30 years.

This is a huge part of the market and they're not going to consider contacting Charter if they have a problem and those that do will more likely sell it or trade up for a better revolver at a higher price. That said, if any firearm has to go back to the factory for work it should be sent back fixed and in working order the first time. Anything else tells me the product design is defective or the people doing the work are incompetent.

tl;dr- Charter is able to make and sell enough revolvers to people who never shoot them and warranty work is an acceptable loss given that a sale was made.

American Finn said:

Reading all of the problems with Charter Arms and how many folks have had to return them for warranty work it begs the question: wouldn't it just be cheaper to build the damn things right in the first place? My gosh, they have to be spending a fortune in shipping and repairing all these guns that come back. Just taking a guess but it seems like 70% of the folks on this thread have had to send a Charter back for warranty repair.

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Guessing that the average Charter owner (which is not going to be an enthusiast posting on a forum) buys it as an "emergency gun" for home defense. It may never have more than a box of ammo through it. For that owner it's highly likely to go bang when needed.

If it needs to go in for service, ask Charter for a shipping label. In fact, you pretty much have to now, what with UPS's recent policy change WRT shipping handguns.

IMHO (and I'm open to knowledgeable correction) the part that I see consistently break, the transfer bar, needs to be redesigned, or made from better material, or both. It always breaks in the same place, the thin part of the upright, just below the "flag".

TTv2 said:

70% of a forum that encompasses about 2% of the total buyers of Charter revolvers. The reality of Charters is they're the cheapest DA revolvers that are currently readily available and have been for almost 3 years now. Taurus at times can be as low in price, but that's only for a few models and at a time Taurus is more interested in producing semi autos while with Charter all they make is revolvers, thus store shelves will have more of them than Taurus and probably at a lower price.

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Charters I see tend to be more expensive than the basic bread-and-butter Taurus (your steel 856 and 605 snubs).

Fine Figure of a Man said:

Yes, you should have. The SP101 is more than $150 better, even used.
I have no doubt Charter will fix the gun. The dealer should take care of that for you. If not I'd take my business somewhere else.

It isn't the oil of lack of it either. I have several revolvers including a CA. Every one of them would fire if they were bone dry or dripping oil.

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I have more “bad “ SP101’s than any firearm model I have ever owned .. Ruger answer “ with in specs” But again only SP101 Id own would be a used one totally looked over by a smith , then me
Canted barrels , mis-matched sized chambers , horrible crane to frame fit .. , and built as if they were fitted by me on a Saturday night ..
But if you have exceptional strength in your trigger finger .. you maybe be able to shoot it …
But I must confess…I have had a couple of exceptional SP101’s one DAO that had work done on it by the pervious owner , it was smooth as butter ..
But , honestly if I was looking for a 5 shot 357 snubbie , today .. the LCR357 would be my choice.. I have one .. great revolver… next would be a Charter or 605 … S&W M60 ( asking to much)
My Charter Professional 6 shot 357 with a 3 inch barrel is a great revolver similar in size as a compact K frame .. but weighs only 24oz Nitride finish over stainless… runs fantastic.. finish is so so
But the gun was not purchased for looks