CA Bulldog Club

I bought a Mag Pug today to keep my Bulldog company. Overall, I'm pleased with its fit and finish. The cylinders are in time (unlike the BD when I bought it and had to send it back to the factory), the throats measure a uniform .359, which matches my LCR and New Model Blackhawk. Lock up is tight and the cylinder gap is small. I hope to get out and shoot it soon. I'm not a huge fan of the ported barrel, but what can I do? The Bulldog fits my hand like no other. The ergonomics of the Mag Pug is the same because it shares the same frame as the Bulldog. My only grump is the barrel, the rifling is not smooth (some minimal chatter marks near the breech). My Bulldog has the same issue, but it does not seem to affect accuracy. The Mag Pug's barrel is less bolloxed up than the Bulldog. I wish Charter would be more careful on this aspect of their production.

yep

loose noose said:

... Once I get them loaded up I'll try some in water filled jugs ...

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Took a bath (shower?) doing that after running some .32-20 test rounds into the water-filled milk jugs.

There was enough water left in the front jugs, but it was draining fast, so on impulse I whipped out the Bulldog on my hip and squeezed off one "Matt's 250gr HP" round (~800fps) into the water ... water, water, everywhere! ... a much bigger Water Event than that produced by those tiny, flat-tip 100 & 115gr lead bullets.

That bullet is on my reloading bench but I have no photo to share.

Here she is. "Black Nitride" finish. Not as purty as a stainless or blued gun, I think. Nevertheless, I like the shape and feel of these guns.

My Bulldog I just picked up today . With a Tiger 38 special that I picked up used at a Gun show .

One of my favorite and most accurate bullets in .38/.357 is the Lyman 358430. I made up a dummy round to see if it would fit the pug. The Cylinder is too short to chamber this round. I'll have to shoot a +P round of this bullet from .38 cases. I was hoping to be able to use .357 cases and try to get 950fps out of this gun for this bullet.

here is my Bulldog and Undercover.

Well yesterday I loaded up some new .44SPL. loads for my two Charter Arms Bulldogs, hopefully tomorrow morning I'll go and check them out, they are as follows Matt's bullets 250 grain LHP's, 180 grain Remington JHP's and 200 grain Hornady XTP's.

Well here it is as promised, when shooting my 2 Charter Arms this morning with the above mentioned reloads. Note all the loads were carefully worked up to near maximum loadings using Unique powders exclusively in accordance with the 49th Edition of the Lyman Reloading Manual.

The 2.5" .44SPL clocked the 180 grain Remington JHP right at 926fps with an extreme spread of 15fps, the 3" using that same load had a reading of 947fps with an extreme spread of 35fps.
The 200grn XTP in the 2.5" was right at 827fps with an extreme spread of 34fps, the 3" using the same load was at 834fps with an extreme spread of 24fps.
The 250grn. Matt's LHP bullet out of the 2.5" clocked at 736fps, with an extreme spread of 39fps, out of the 3" it was at 783fps with a 31fps extreme spread.

The accuracy was the best out of the 3" Bulldog using the Matt's 250 grain LHPs and out of the 2.5" seemed to like the 180grn. Remington JHPs.. Note the ones to the head were shot using 200grn. JSWC's using very light loads at 7 yards, the rest were all at 15 yards as I was using the chronograph at that range. Also the only round I could recover from the 1 gallon water jugs was the 250 grain Matt's bullet that stuck in a 4X4 I had behind the water bottles. It opened up to .678 and weighed right at 250.9grns. (must have retained some of the wood in that cavity). The other bullets passed thru both jugs I had lined up and apparently went into orbit, although one of the 180grn Remington JHP lodged into the 4X4 and literally disintegrated. Believe me I dug into the 4X4 and even split it open with an axe and only found pieces of lead, reckon that is why I got them so cheap. Anyways below are photo's of this morning's shoot. BTW I'll be carrying the 2.5" loaded with the Critical Defense ammo by Hornady, I was curious to see what the other loads had to offer, however I would never carry hand loaded ammo in my CCW weapon.

Legionnaire, using the Unique powder on the Matt's bullets I got zero leading, I do realize they are 50grns heavier than the 200grn you are using but the velocity using Unique is definitely there, it is a dirty burning powder though. If you will note the 200grn. XTP were all over your 800fps, however they are jacketed. The 200grn JSWC that I shot at the head of the silhouette, I was using HP-38, and I do remember those were rather anemic loads using 5.2 grains of that powder, plus they were loaded back in 2000 and abandoned in the heat in my garage. Today when I first got out on my range the temperature was about 70, however when I got off the range it was 88 degrees. (Our extremely hot weather is just around the corner) The recoil is fairly stout using the Matt's 250grn. bullets but not that bad really. BTW have you tried the Hornady Critical Defense ammo, I'm really impressed with it even though it is only 165grn projectile, recoil is very light but traveling at 900+fps is quite impressive. I'm not sure what you plan on carrying in your Charter Arms for CCW, but I'm a firm believer in using factory ammo for that purpose. BTW sorry about that jig saw puzzle of a target I posted, my camera had dead batteries, so I had to wait until I got home, at least my pen was working.

I want a new bulldog classic. Can the rubber grips of the other new models fit to it?

Analogkid said:

I want a new bulldog classic. Can the rubber grips of the other new models fit to it?

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Yes. They should fit just fine.
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Thanks, L and LN, for the data. Legionnaire, what was your hold when shooting the 200gr DEWC. Were shots shooting low or high to POA?

I've got some Titegroup, but have never tried it in my .44. I think I will keep it for .38 and mid-range .357 loads. I like Red Dot and Unique in .44. I do have a can of Green Dot that is also supposed to work well in .44, but I have yet to develop any loads for that.

I filed my front sight down some to get it on point of aim.

If it had been a Colt or S&W the file would have stayed in the drawer.

Thanks, Legionnaire. My gun shoots to sights with the 240-250 grn bullets. I've heard that some Bulldogs shoot to the sights with the lighter bullets.

The only factory rounds I've shot from my 3'' classic were 180 grain and they shot way low. 240's shoot right on.