New member. I just purchased a Charter Arms Bulldog Pug .44 Special for my wife. I was looking for a snubby .357 for her but the local gunshop only had .38 specials on hand. The clerk which I have dealt with for years kept pushing the .38 thinking that the .357 would be too much recoil for the little lady, who by the way is 5'2 and 120lbs. I knew better because i broke her in on .45 Colt's and .44 mags. We looked at a Rossi .38, the cylinder lock up was terrible, next we looked at a Taurus model 85. I was surprised that the cylinder lock up on the Taurus was equally bad. The next gun we looked at was a S&W 642 LS, nice gun , but still a .38. When I asked to see the Bulldog .44 special the clerk thought that I was nuts and told my wife so. i passed the gun to her after an initial inspection for functionality and she bought it. We went out to our range and i showed her how to load it and reviewed D/A VS S/A, I instructed her to hold it with both hands, which she did for the first five rounds, then she shot the rest of her ammo with a one handed grip. I did get to crack off one cylinder full and found the recoil to be mild. The finish on the Bulldog does leave a bit ot be desired ie. some machine marks visible, but the gun functions flawlesly and I feel the .44 special is a much better choice for protection tha the .38