Well, it remains to be seen if the latest reincarnation of the CA guns are worth the time & money ...
My brief interlude with CA guns was more of a dalliance from my experience with the rock solid dependibility of my many Ruger revolvers. I wasn't particularly a S&W revolver enthusiast until after I entered L/E, and was
forced to carry a S&W revolver.
I'd grown up being a Ruger revolver shooter & owner ...
I had a couple of CA Bulldogs chambered in .44 Special, 1 blued & 1 stainless, and while one of them would seemingly function and fire most of the time, although sometimes with erratic accuracy with a couple of different factory rounds, the other one would consistently lock up. It repeatedly locked up even during dry-fire.
I got rid of the blued one that wouldn't pattern for me ... and focused on the stainless one, hoping the
glitch in functioning was something easily repaired. It exhibited decent accuracy when it would fire.
I never tried to "magnum-ize" the ammunition, either, favoring the old W-W 200gr STHP and the mild Federal LSWCHP (really more of a dimpled nose, rather than a true hollowpoint). I remember being told that there was a bearing surface issue that W-W had to resolve with the early .44 Special STHP, so that may have been involved with some of the accuracy issues with the other (blued) Bulldog ... but the Fed LSWCHP and some mild LSWC 'target' handloads my dad produced did well enough, and were mild enough, for what I was being told was a 'light duty' .44 revolver. None of those loads should've strained the gun.
I returned it to the factory for repair at least twice, and I thought I remembered finally trying a third time in desperation (it's been many years). The last time it was returned, with the same sort of "We fixed it" letter, I picked it up out of the shipping box and started dry-firing it at the store counter (they handled shipping for me at that time). It didn't make it all the way around the cylinder before the cylinder seized and the gun locked up tight.
I didn't get much sympathy from the gunshop folks, although they did a bit of head nodding, seemingly because it was a CA gun. They had a seemingly bored gunsmith, however, who apparently enjoyed a challenge, so they agreed to take it in on trade toward anything I cared to purchase. I dropped it back in the shipping box without a second thought, selected something of better quality to purchase, and never looked back ...
I've known a couple of folks who owned and enjoyed older Undercover .38's, but they only shot the guns sparingly. Ditto another guy I knew who owned a blued CA Bulldog, and admittedly only fired it a couple of times in several years.
There are a lot of modern, reliable, robust handguns, backed up by good-to-excellent customer service, available in the current market place. I imagine there's always going to be room for another company that can offer more of the same.
Time will tell if this is one of those instances.
I won't be rushing down to try a 3rd one, though.