Panzerschwein
member
Hello everyone! 
Well I went and really did it this time. I picked up a Charter Arms Bulldog in .44 Special off Gun Broker and it arrived at my dealer's shop yesterday. I chose the version with the 2.5" barrel, stainless steel construction, and standard hammer (Model # 74420). This thread will concern my initial impressions of the gun. I haven't fired it yet, I'm currently waiting on a shipment of .44 special ammo but will post a range review soon.
Here is a compilation picture I made:
Top right shows the gun as I got it (minus shipping material), directly below is the cylinder showing off it's big .44 charge holes. To the left you can see the case with gun and all it's paperwork. It also came with a blue plastic gun wrapping and a trigger lock, forgot to snap those. The gun comes with standard paperwork, a manual (more of a pamphlet) with no real pictures to speak of, some safety warnings, factory test fire casing w/ envelope, a warranty registration postcard, a schematic, and what is essentially a thank-you note from the owner of the company. All in all pretty standard. I do wish the manual had more information and more pictures, but it seems serviceable enough and goes over routine cleaning and disassembly etc. etc.
Next we have a better picture of the firearm itself:
I was neither surprised nor disappointed at the fit and finish of the gun. Charter Arms is well known for producing less expensive revolvers, and naturally this can come through in the exterior appearance of the gun. That being said, there were no glaring issues and the entire gun was evenly good in this regard. All in all fit and finish weren't bad at all considering this is a sub-$400 NIB revolver. It's got a sort of "bead blast" finish to it that looks decent but isn't quite as nice as, say, a Ruger's satin stainless finish. Still, it looks good.
Before I took the gun home I did the usual revolver check out: I tested the obvious swinging out of the cylinder and checked the ejector rod. A little rough, but everything was fine. I then went on to check for endshake and cylinder wobble on each chamber with the trigger all the way down and hammer forward (firing position). 0 endshake noted, with only minor wobble on each cylinder. Not much more wobble than a new Smith & Wesson or Ruger would be expected to have. Timing seemed to be good, but I did notice that the gun only went into full lock up (when pulling the trigger double action) right before the hammer would break. Timing for now is good, but I could possibly see it becoming an issue down the road. I'll have to keep and eye on it. I also checked for any obviously broken or overly rough parts, especially in the cylinder and bore/crown. Everything was perfectly normal in that area.
The gun passed the initial checkout, and after the transfer paperwork I was good to go. Once home, I opened the mailbox to find Amazon had delivered my Bianchi speed strips and A-zoom snap caps for the gun. I went inside and started to dry fire the gun (with the snap caps of course). The trigger feels good, very consistent and breaks clean in both DA and SA. The DA trigger doesn't stack at all, is only marginally gritty (should smooth with time) and wasn't overly heavy at all. I don't have a trigger pull scale, but I'd imagine DA pull wasn't much over 10 lbs. It felt notably lighter than my Ruger GP100 and S&W 642's triggers. Single action fire is excellent, breaks very clean with no creep. Great trigger on this gun, no gunsmithing needed.
The weapon is a lightweigh for it's size and caliber. Advertised at 21 and 1/2 oz in weight, it was very nice in hand. Points quite well, and doesn't feel much heavier than my S&W 642. The grips Charter Arms sends these guns out with seem good for target shooting. They are checkered rubber two-piece affairs three finger grooves, affording a comfortable and full grip. But, for concealment purposes, I am going to order a set of Barami Hip Grips for the gun, as I've had great success with them on my S&W 642. I might also pair those with an aluminum Tyler-T grip adapter, which I also have for my 642 and it's a great combo. That will kill two bird with one bird so I won't have to worry about finding a holster as well.
As for carry ammo, I've looking into some offerings and so far the Speer Gold Dot 200 grain JHP seems to have the best reviews, including the Blazer aluminum cased version. I'll have to scrounge up some of that too when I can find it. .44 Special ammo in general is hard to come by, and expensive at that, I might have to take up handleloading for this cartridge if I get to liking the gun enough.
All in all, my first impressions of my new Charter Arms Bulldog in .44 Special are quite good. The gun looks and functions well, I only need to get it out to the range once the ammo I ordered gets here. Look forward to the full range review in the near future, thanks for reading.
-Cooldill out
Well I went and really did it this time. I picked up a Charter Arms Bulldog in .44 Special off Gun Broker and it arrived at my dealer's shop yesterday. I chose the version with the 2.5" barrel, stainless steel construction, and standard hammer (Model # 74420). This thread will concern my initial impressions of the gun. I haven't fired it yet, I'm currently waiting on a shipment of .44 special ammo but will post a range review soon.
Here is a compilation picture I made:
Top right shows the gun as I got it (minus shipping material), directly below is the cylinder showing off it's big .44 charge holes. To the left you can see the case with gun and all it's paperwork. It also came with a blue plastic gun wrapping and a trigger lock, forgot to snap those. The gun comes with standard paperwork, a manual (more of a pamphlet) with no real pictures to speak of, some safety warnings, factory test fire casing w/ envelope, a warranty registration postcard, a schematic, and what is essentially a thank-you note from the owner of the company. All in all pretty standard. I do wish the manual had more information and more pictures, but it seems serviceable enough and goes over routine cleaning and disassembly etc. etc.
Next we have a better picture of the firearm itself:
I was neither surprised nor disappointed at the fit and finish of the gun. Charter Arms is well known for producing less expensive revolvers, and naturally this can come through in the exterior appearance of the gun. That being said, there were no glaring issues and the entire gun was evenly good in this regard. All in all fit and finish weren't bad at all considering this is a sub-$400 NIB revolver. It's got a sort of "bead blast" finish to it that looks decent but isn't quite as nice as, say, a Ruger's satin stainless finish. Still, it looks good.
Before I took the gun home I did the usual revolver check out: I tested the obvious swinging out of the cylinder and checked the ejector rod. A little rough, but everything was fine. I then went on to check for endshake and cylinder wobble on each chamber with the trigger all the way down and hammer forward (firing position). 0 endshake noted, with only minor wobble on each cylinder. Not much more wobble than a new Smith & Wesson or Ruger would be expected to have. Timing seemed to be good, but I did notice that the gun only went into full lock up (when pulling the trigger double action) right before the hammer would break. Timing for now is good, but I could possibly see it becoming an issue down the road. I'll have to keep and eye on it. I also checked for any obviously broken or overly rough parts, especially in the cylinder and bore/crown. Everything was perfectly normal in that area.
The gun passed the initial checkout, and after the transfer paperwork I was good to go. Once home, I opened the mailbox to find Amazon had delivered my Bianchi speed strips and A-zoom snap caps for the gun. I went inside and started to dry fire the gun (with the snap caps of course). The trigger feels good, very consistent and breaks clean in both DA and SA. The DA trigger doesn't stack at all, is only marginally gritty (should smooth with time) and wasn't overly heavy at all. I don't have a trigger pull scale, but I'd imagine DA pull wasn't much over 10 lbs. It felt notably lighter than my Ruger GP100 and S&W 642's triggers. Single action fire is excellent, breaks very clean with no creep. Great trigger on this gun, no gunsmithing needed.
The weapon is a lightweigh for it's size and caliber. Advertised at 21 and 1/2 oz in weight, it was very nice in hand. Points quite well, and doesn't feel much heavier than my S&W 642. The grips Charter Arms sends these guns out with seem good for target shooting. They are checkered rubber two-piece affairs three finger grooves, affording a comfortable and full grip. But, for concealment purposes, I am going to order a set of Barami Hip Grips for the gun, as I've had great success with them on my S&W 642. I might also pair those with an aluminum Tyler-T grip adapter, which I also have for my 642 and it's a great combo. That will kill two bird with one bird so I won't have to worry about finding a holster as well.
As for carry ammo, I've looking into some offerings and so far the Speer Gold Dot 200 grain JHP seems to have the best reviews, including the Blazer aluminum cased version. I'll have to scrounge up some of that too when I can find it. .44 Special ammo in general is hard to come by, and expensive at that, I might have to take up handleloading for this cartridge if I get to liking the gun enough.
All in all, my first impressions of my new Charter Arms Bulldog in .44 Special are quite good. The gun looks and functions well, I only need to get it out to the range once the ammo I ordered gets here. Look forward to the full range review in the near future, thanks for reading.
-Cooldill out
