Charter Arms Bulldog XL .45 Colt

aaaaa said:
It is the one linked above and I just bought it!
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So I bought this Charter Arms 45 Colt Bulldog on July 20 and when I got home saw too much play in the cylinder, so took it back and the GS shipped it to Charter Arms for repair. It came back two days ago and I grabbed it today. That is like 12-day turnaround! Awesome! Cylinder is nice and tight now. Can hardly wait to shoot it.

The report from CA:
Customer reports play in the cylinder and the hammer is stuck in the cocked position. When inspecting the revolver I found that the action was locked up because the twist-tie from the customer had gotten behind the trigger, not allowing it to to go completely reward. After I got the twist-tie out I thought the SA trigger pull was a bit too spongy. The play the customer reports in the cylinder is completely normal in these revolvers. The trigger and hammer were removed from the frame. Both sears were re cut and then the revolver was reassembled. The revolver was function checked and then checked over with our gauges. Timing, range rod, cylinder gap, firing pin protrusion, headspace and SA Trigger pull poundage all passed to company standards. The revolver was then test fired. During testing all rounds fired and ejected with no malfunctions.
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The action was not locked up for me and I know nothing about a twisty tie. So the GS must have been monkeying with it before sending it in. They said the cylinder slop is normal and it still has it, but with the hammer cocked and/or after dry firing and keeping the trigger held down, the cylinder is much tighter. Before it was loose both ways. So not sure what they did but it is fixed and even tweaked.

For me Charter Arms is an awesome gun company!
 
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Cornhusker77 said:
I'm a .45 Colt fan so when this one was back in stock for about 3 minutes, I grabbed it.
So far I've only fired 5 rounds through it to make sure it functioned. As for accuracy, I was aiming at the ground and hit it dead center every time. :D
Anyone have experience with these?
View attachment 1084910
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Notice the ejector rod has a half-inch of free space in the shroud. Would have been nice to make the ejector rod longer so the cases would fully eject. I wonder if a longer ejector rod can be purchased and installed.
 
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They do get your attention. Not the sharp slap and rotational torque of a snub .357, but more of a solid punch to the palm. You'll know you fired an old school big bore. Not for the timid. But very controllable.

I wish I had kept mine. But I'm getting out of the 45colt game.
 
Planning to shoot 100 rounds cowboy 180 gran round nose lead and 10 rounds 225 grain semi-jacketed flat point. We'll see how she does. I suspect it will be more than my 44 Special by a good margin as the 44 has a 6-inch barrel, but will not come near the 44 Magnums. Going to be fun. I will pocket carry it but the butt shows readily in pocket opening, so shirt untucked.
 
Just back from the range. The 180 grain cowboy loads are a pleasure to shoot. The 225 grain really had a lot of recoil. I only shot 60 rounds total, partly because of time and partly because of a problem using the sights. The front sight is like a mountain. Sticks way high. If I level the top of the front sight in the notch even with the top of the rear sight, it shoots way low. The red line is a guesstimate of about where the top of the front sight should be. This is even more complicated because the sights are fuzzy as my right eye is distance vision. I need to see if the gunsmith can cut it down, maybe they have an apparatus to use to ensure not too much is cut off but just enough.
upload_2022-8-5_12-24-19.png
 
greenmtnguy said:
The sights are about right for 230-255 grain loads at 800fps. Lighter loads or faster loads will shoot low
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Thanks!

That explains why my 225 grain were not hitting where I aimed, as I had the blade high. The target was pretty holed by then so could not tell where they went. Need to go back and try with more targets.

So the recoil affects the bullet trajectory?

How to compensate for lighter loads? Maybe a paint stripe on the front sight.

Is this a phenomena of larger calibers? I don't recall this problem with my .357 magnum between mags and specials.
 
aaaaa said:
Thanks!

That explains why my 225 grain were not hitting where I aimed, as I had the blade high. The target was pretty holed by then so could not tell where they went. Need to go back and try with more targets.

So the recoil affects the bullet trajectory?

How to compensate for lighter loads? Maybe a paint stripe on the front sight.

Is this a phenomena of larger calibers? I don't recall this problem with my .357 magnum between mags and specials.
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I would assume you haven’t had a super wide range of grain weights in your lighter calibers. It becomes much more exaggerated in big bores. You could try painting the ramp and see if you can get it in the sweet spot you your ammo.
 
Blkhrt13 said:
I would assume you haven’t had a super wide range of grain weights in your lighter calibers. It becomes much more exaggerated in big bores. You could try painting the ramp and see if you can get it in the sweet spot you your ammo.
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I have 180 grain for practice and just ordered some 185 grain HP for SD, so I can keep everything on the same level.
 
aaaaa said:
Thanks!

So the recoil affects the bullet trajectory?
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No, recoil affects the rotation of the pistol in your hand, before the bullet leaves the muzzle. Heavier bullets rotate the pistol more, bullet goes up.

How to compensate for lighter loads?
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Just play with combinations till you get frustrated and give up. A slicker grip might work, but it has been my experience, if the pistol is sighted in for a particular bullet weight, the only thing that will make it shoot to point of aim is a change of sights.

Is this a phenomena of larger calibers? I don't recall this problem with my .357 magnum between mags and specials.
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I see differences in point of impact in my 38 Special revolvers between light and heavy bullets, and in the 357 Magnum. Move the target out, and you will see this too. Offset is more visible the greater the distance the target is from your muzzle.
 
Took it in to the GS I bought it at and said I wanted the front sight adjusted. They said easiest is just file a little off each time and try it again until it shoot where you want it. I have seen online where a lot of people have done this to CA guns. Here is a case on The High Road where a guy sent his into CA and the factory lowered the sight considerably (picture included).

My range time will be 180 grain and I ordered 60 rounds of HP in 185 grain, so that is what I want to be aiming with. If I ever shoot heavier stuff, I can simply aim high. I might tgo to 200 grain but that is enough.

Told guy at gun shop that Buffalo Bore has 300 grain. He said don't do it, the CA 45 is meant to shoot up to 250 grain.
 
SwampWolf said:
Don't cut too much off that front sight. It's way easier to lower it (by filing off small increments) than to raise it if you took off too much as evidenced by your shots starting to group too high.
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Yep, I am done, it is just right. It is a tricky and spooky thing as you have to be sure you are shooting straight which is why I was mostly shooting single action to test it out. You only have a little leeway if you go to far to drop the front sight low in the notch of the back sight. All revolvers do seem to have a higher front sight than rear and there is good reason, this one was just way too high. I am surprised I did not shoot high with the American Eagle 225 grain as they have a lot of punch, almost feel like a +P.

Blue and yellow lines should be parallel. You can see there still is height and this is normal even on my 38 Special that the front sight is higher. I definitely would not take any more off.
upload_2022-8-9_10-37-29.png
 
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Here are the groups I shot with it yesterday. One might argue they are running a tad high but certainly not by much. More shooting needed to verify. But I am happy with the way it shoots. I aimed for the yellow in all but one case (X on left side row 2 column 1). In Row 3 the first two are side by side and on the DA (squares around the holes) it went a bit wild and low, with one way into the next target.

Total 12 targets on two sheets. I turned sheet upside down so I would not have to aim low for the bottom row. There were four that I didn't mark well and so left out because it was hard to tell what was going on, one is in Row 3, column 3, and only shows 4 holes (where is the fifth?).

Oh, pulling the target in and marking after each cylinder full is a good way to keep the gun from getting as hot. All shooting was two handed. Marked them for SA and DA but a couple I forgot so don't know.

These are not marksman groups but then I am a novice. I think they are plenty good for center mass anyway. Note the round nose lead tore the paper, but the flat nose lead semi jacketed made nice round holes generally.

upload_2022-8-9_10-41-4.jpeg
 
Thanks for the follow up reports on your experience with this gun. Helpful to read some real hands on feedback.

I’d like to think this gun would run well with my normal 250 gr, 8.5 gr Unique loads (about 850 fps). Based on your anecdotal experience, they’d probably hit point of aim out of the gate with factory front blade height. I only wonder if it would feel a bit stiff for me to handle in such a light gun.

I’m not sure I have the heart to deviate from my 250 gr load that works perfectly in every .45 Colt gun that I have. Would hate to have to cook up a different load just for the one gun. :)
 
Tallball said:
As far as store-bought range ammo goes, 44 special, 45acp, and 45 colt all feel about the same to me.

I have Charter Arms revolvers in 44 special and 45acp. I bought them both used. The 44 had been shot a fair amount and I've never had a problem, other than you have to watch the screws for loosening (I finally used blue Loctite). The 45acp had barely been shot. Apparently someone bought it new, discovered it had a problem, and traded it to the LGS without disclosure. I don't even remember what the problem was, but the factory fixed it for me quickly and for free, so that was cool. It hasn't given me any trouble since.

They're not only small for their caliber, they're light. That makes them very carryable. I carry my 44 often. The trigger has an odd feel to it, but it's not heavy. The fixed sights are fine. The factory grips are fine. The recoil is noticeable, but not sharp. I can shoot them about as accurately as most snubbies, which is plenty good enough for SD. The fat bullets are comforting to carry. :)

Are they a tiny bit smaller than a K-frame, or does it just seem like it? They're more lightly built, that's for sure. My Rossi 720 is a smilarly-sized five shot 44 special, but it's built thicker like a Smith K-frame. It's faster and friendlier to shoot, but I would need a thick belt to carry it. My Charter Arms will fit in a large pocket and not even sag that bad.

I shoot a few cylinders of light range ammo through them every once in a while, just for fun and to make sure they're in good shooting order. I have N-frames in the same calibers that I can shoot thousands of rounds through if I want to shoot a bunch of big bullets. And I have practice snubbies in 22lr and 38 special if I want to work on snubby basics. I figure the Charters will last longer than I will, if I don't overwork them.

This is the 45acp model. It has cool little spring thingies to hold the ammo in the cylinders.

Charter Arms Pit Bull 45acp

Charter Arms Pit Bull 45acp

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Size comparison
https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/charter-bulldog-size.844988/

A Charter with a Bulldog frame is basically the size of a Taurus 856
 
This thing was shooting low and to the right with my reloads.
Shooting the 230 grain cast lead RN from Missouri Bullet Company with 6.6 grains of HP-38 and they were hitting like this from 25 ft.
20220709_091033.jpg

Someone suggested using less powder, so I thought "Why not?"
Using the same bullet with 6.0 grains of HP-38 I was getting hits like this from 25 ft.

20220814_171552.jpg

Does the lighter powder charge make that much difference, or was I just having a good day?
 
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