An old Charter Bulldog

Status
Not open for further replies.
M

magsnubby

Member
Joined
Apr 20, 2004
Messages
915
Location
fresno,ca
In December of 1980 i bought myself a blued 3" Charter Arms Bulldog as a Christmas present. It cost me $128.45 otd. It was my fishin' gun until i gave it to my dad as a retirement present in the mid '80's. Dad loved that little brute. Between the two of us we must have put a zillion rounds through that thing. He gave it back to me a few years ago when his arthritis got so bad he really didn't enjoy shooting it anymore.

A couple of years ago i let a friend talk me out of it. Every since Dad passed away in January of '05 i've regretted selling it. When i got Dad's two Colts last week i really started thinking alot about him. I decided to see if my friend would sell the Bulldog back to me. I just brought it home a little while ago. This time it cost me $100.

I won't be carrying it, i have a stainless 2 1/2" Bulldog that i sometimes carry when i'm fishing, i'll shoot it occasionally but it'll mostly be a safe queen. I just wondered what you Bulldog guys carry in your Bulldogs as a defense round.
 
235 grain jacketed hollow point with enough Unique to move it about 900 fps.
 
I bought an "old style" 3" 44 Bulldog from a member on TFL. Have not shot it much, since I just got it. Need to get reloading dies and brass for it. Kicks a little more than my 3" .357 IMHO but it has much less flash and blast. You can't beat a big piece of lead at medium velocity for personal defence.:D
 
Back in the early '80's when i was into handloading i worked up some 180 gr jhp's for my Bulldog. I can't find any of my old records so i don't know what the specs were. But they were hot. Hotter than the article i had read recommended. Insanely hot. Hot enough to make you scream "WTFWASTHAT"???? when the gun went off. I fired one cylinder full and put the rest of the ammo back in my truck. When i gave the gun to Dad he got that box of ammo with it. There was still 45 rounds left in the box. A couple of weeks later i was at his house "So Dad, did you shoot any of my hollow points"? "Yeah" he said with a little smile. "They were kind of warm. I shot some of them but your mother shot up most of them". So much for my macho handloads.
 
I've got 2 Charter .44s. One is a house gun loaded with Glasers, the other is an "under the radar" gun.










Semper Fi
 
I loaded up a bunch of 240 gr SWC above 9 grains of Blue Dot.

Shooting at an 8 1/2 x 11 target at 7 yards was semi accurate and I usually could pattern at 6" +/-. The fun thing was that 3 outa 5 rounds would key-hole at that range.

Is that a good defensive round for 7 yards?

240 grains at 750 fps hitting sideways?
 
I have three Charter 2000 guns, a Undercover, Offduty and Bulldog Pug

Charters quality control seems to be hit or miss. Mine were bought between November 2003 and October 2004. Quality control may have improved on the newer guns. The Offduty and Undercover both had problems out of the box. Neither gun got through the first cylinder full with out atleast two missfires (light firing pin hits). Both were fixed under warranty. The Offduty has been through about 250 rounds with no further problems. I bobbed the hammer and converted the Undercover to D/A only. It has about 500 rounds through it. No problems so far. The Bulldog ran just fine stright from the box. It's been through about 500 rounds without a problem. I also bobbed the hammer and converted it to D/A only.

I've been eye ballin' a blued Undercover. Maybe i'll break down and find out what the qc is on the newer guns.
 
CA 2000 Bulldog

I picked one up new on Monday and fired 20 rnds of 240g Rainier handloads through it with no problems. It seems to be a good gun. It seems to be accurate as well. The recoil was not bad. I need to use powder other than the 13.5g of IMR231, lots of unburned pwdr.
I did notice that if you thumb the hammer back and at the same time apply downward pressure the hammer will not latch and can slip to fire.:confused: Pulling back on the hammer normally it will latch ok and will not release until triggered. The cylinder seems to be tight when put in lockup. I will call CA about this. The distance from the forcing cone and the cylinder is greater than other revolvers that I have, I will slide in a feeler gauge in to see.
I like it as it is lighter than my Taurus 445 in 44sp. and will probably be a good carry, tackle box ect gun.:)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top