complaint on new C.A. bulldogs.....

If you really want a Charter revolver either find an older one from the 80s OR buy a new one and be prepared to send it back to Charter repeatedly until they repair it. (they will) I still carry one from the orginal company made in the 80s and it has never failed me. Be aware that a large percentage of used ones will have been abused by idots who handloaded for them and tried to turn it into a .44 mag. It doesn't take much abuse before they loosen up. Shooting very light bullets at very high velocities or very heavy bullets over 850 fps will beat a Charter to death very quickly.

Drail said:

If you really want a Charter revolver either find an older one from the 80s OR buy a new one and be prepared to send it back to Charter repeatedly until they repair it. (they will) I still carry one from the orginal company made in the 80s and it has never failed me. Be aware that a large percentage of used ones will have been abused by idots who handloaded for them and tried to turn it into a .44 mag. It doesn't take much abuse before they loosen up. Shooting very light bullets at very high velocities or very heavy bullets over 850 fps will beat a Charter to death very quickly.

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Better yet find older S&W, Ruger, Dan Wesson or dare I say Colt? While there is nothing wrong with grandpas .44 special there isn't anything wrong with .38/.357.

I have a current production Bulldog.

I just got it out and tried to see if I could get it to do what you observed.

Mine has no problems. Checked my current production Mag Pug .357, too. Both good to go. Maybe I got lucky.

My Mag Pug had a few warts to be sorted out (shot low, gritty trigger out of the box, I'm not nuts about the ported barrel), but my Bulldog has been great.

I have a machinist's background and I'm amazed that you can measure .010 by sight and feel. It seems like you really went out of your way just to bash Charter Arms.

I too have a machinist background, and I too have noted similar issues with new charter revolvers at gun shops. To be fair, most new J frames from S&W I've checked also fail this test. When a gun has carry-up issues, its usually a case of coming just a few thou short, so even just blindly guessing, he would probably be fairly close with a guess of 10 thou off.

I own four of the older Charter Arms and really enjoy them. Two of them are Bulldogs chambered as 44 Specials, one is a .38 Police Bulldog, the other is an AR-7.

Bob

Geezer Glide said:

I have a machinist's background and I'm amazed that you can measure .010 by sight and feel. It seems like you really went out of your way just to bash Charter Arms.

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Ridiculous. I am a disabled auto mechanic and used to deal with clearances much tighter all the time, I can surely feel it and see it.

I am still waiting for Ruger to enlarge the cylinder and cylinder window of the SP101 and chamber it for .44 Special. I expect I'll be waiting a long time...

Landric, you would think that would be a "no brainer", but alas as you say we will probably be waiting a long time

I have handled a few of the new 44 Bulldogs , and have noticed that some don't make it all the way to being locked up with the hammer fully cocked as well. Some have been fine, while others were not. One seemed to have the front sight mounted a bit cockeyed as well.

The one I got to fire was a decent example. I think if you get a "good one" , you're all set. Cool little revolver IMO.

Landric, we're still waiting on your review of the bulldog on GT which you started but never finished....

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I would love to, but a friend of mine talked me out of it, and I don't have it anymore. I am, however, thinking I need another one, so I may eventually be able to finish the review.

10-4, i see you list kansas as your location. Are you the same one who lived in va and moved to nc....? That thread was a year or sp ago on another board with the same name i thought.

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Yep, that is me. I'm from North Carolina originally, I lived in Virginia for about ten years, moved back to North Carolina for a while, and now I am in the Kansas City Metro Area; as of about two weeks ago.

FWIW, the friend that acquired my Bulldog still has it and it is running strong.

My second gun ever (back a few years) was a a recent production Mag Pug that would just jam up (hammer & trigger would cock 1/4 of the way and jam) after 10 rounds first time shooting it. Second time back from the factory it was out of time (before I knew anything about guns to tell you that) and shaved a round really good. Damn lucky it didn't blow up or hurt me. After that I just gave it to a friend - went back to the factory 3 times and still didn't work right. It kept loosening up, losing time, etc. with just 38 +P's and light 357 magnums...

Like others said get their older stuff, it seems to be better. The new stuff is just plain crap.

Even if you managed to fit a 5 shot .44 cylinder into a Ruger GP frame window (possible) when you try to fit a .44 barrel into the frame you will wind up with the same problem S&W faced with the 696 - there is not enough room for a decent forcing cone. If you have ever seen the forcing cone on a 696 you know what I'm talking about. It's pretty fragile when certain handloaders get ahold of it (or buy into the Buffalo Bore/Corbon koolaid). Ruger will not build a gun that fragile. A little known fact about the Charter is that the man who came up with the idea used to work for Ruger. When they refused to build it he resigned and started Charter Arms. Look at the similarity of the Charter and Ruger DA revolvers - no sideplate with all parts except the hammer entering the frame from the bottom. I think Ruger used many of his ideas after he left. It really is a groundbreaking design. The Charter could use a little more steel in it and they are difficult to repair and tune because you cannot see the parts interacting by removing the sideplate, you must fit everything outside the frame. But I have an old Charter and I'll never sell it. I have a box of spare parts. Mine has never had any problems and was carried daily for many years (until I got a 696). If you find an older Charter that hasn't been abused with near magnum loads it will give you a long service life.