Charter Arms Undercover .38 is misfiring--again.

[tbeb]

Last year I bought an old model (manufactured in early 70's) Charter Arms Undercover .38. Seller didn't tell me that it misfired 3 times every cylinder full... I sent it to Charter Arms and they replaced the firing pin, firing pin spring, and mainspring. I got it back and found it still misfired twice every cylinder full. I called Charter Arms, and they sent me an extra heavy mainspring. That "seemed" to fix it. Today I fired 40-45 rounds, and experienced about 4 misfires. Ammo used was Federal factory and reloads with Federal primers; some +P but mostly non +P. Has anyone had this same problem, and did you get it fixed? I really like this revolver for pocket carry, but I'm about ready to give up on it and buy a S&W.

 

[mbt2001]

Well, the problem is undoubtedly the gun.

I have thought about it and the only other thing that I can suggest is taking it to a competent gunsmith and seeing if he can repair the problem. This may sound a little nutty, but if there are not any in your area then you can send the gun to Smith and Wesson's performance center. Call them first to make sure, but I think that it would work on it. They do some pretty good work.

If you don't want to go through the hassel, Rossi has a great 5 shot .38 snub and a 6 shot .357 snub. Taurus also has some great snubs... all for under $300.00 and in many cases slightly over $230.00.

Good luck.

 

[WT]

I have an Undercover of the same vintage. Goes bang everytime. I love it. I am sure you are a little disappointed with what you got but don't give up on it yet.

Not being a smith, I can't help but wonder if the cylinder needs to be shimmed and set back a little bit?

 

[Majic]

What missfired the factory or the reloads? If the reloads missfired were the primers high? Did the cartridges fire on the second strike? I would look into that before placing all the blame on the revolver.

 

[MCgunner]

I've had the problem with one revolver some years ago, didn't like magnum primers. They're harder to dent. So long as I loaded with standard pistol primers, I was fine. I'd get misfires with magnum primers, though. Those +Ps might have harder primers in 'em for the higher pressures. You might try different ammo before you go sending the gun somewhere. Try a standard velocity load, shoot the box, see if it misfires. Try several brands. If it still has a problem, it's probably a light spring. That spring oughta cap ANY primer, but sometimes they don't. I've never had the problem in high end revolvers. The one I had the problem with was a Rossi M971 revolver. I liked the gun, anyway. Just loaded all my rounds with standard primers.

 

[tbeb]

I said, "Ammo used was Federal factory and reloads with Federal primers; some +P but mostly non +P." I want to correct this... I had one misfire with a +P Federal factory load. I had one misfire with a +P Safestop custom load that uses a Federal primer. I had 2 misfires with my standard pressure reloads which use Winchester primers (which are like gold in color). 12 of the 40-45 rounds I fired were +P; 7 were Federal factory and 5 were Safestop custom.