Charter Arms .44 Special

[Scrounger]

Here's a .44 Special up on Auction Arms, but not Ruger or S&W. But a lot cheaper. I'm happy with mine.

[Leftoverdj]

Charter Bulldogs are carrying guns, not shooting guns. I wore two out in about 1500 rounds each. The weak point is cylinder end shake support.

They are hard to beat as serious carry guns, but I would not own another for recreational shooting.

[Scott_In_OKC]

I don't think I would want to carry something I can't shoot very often. If you're going to trust your life to a weapon, you have to practice with it. I have a few thousand rounds through my Glock 23 and I'm not sure it's even broken in yet.

[racepres]

I will happily carry mine Thank You! I just don't find it "fun" to shoot!!!
It is as likely to go "Bang" as any other gun I own, and hits what I point it at!! MV

[JohnSmiles]

I had one of the older stainless .44's.
I shot that gun more than any other carry gun I have owned.
I never had a problem with it, and of all the guns I have traded it is the one I would want back more than any other.
I was short on cash, and swayed by a prettier gun . . . .[smilie=1:
Sadly, after a few weeks I went back to the gun shop with the intentions of bartering back my bulldog, but it had already been sold.
I have not tried the newer version.
I just can't warm up to it.
One day I will find another older model, and will have the extra cash, and we WILL correct this issue.
:Fire:

[bart55]

I also had two of the early 44 buldogs loved them ,I did alot of shooting with them ( had one ,it became unreliable traded it then bought another) the same thing happened to the second one . They seem to shoot loose ,then it becomes a matter of guessing when it will fire.Had one of our club members buy a used one last year and lo and behold it had a mysterious problem.(it would not always fire a round in the chamber). These were not hot loads ,most of the stuff I shot was strictly low velocity plinker loads. I hope the new ones are better built but as for me I would wait and see how they hold up before buying one ,

[Kraschenbirn]

I had one of the original (blue) Bulldogs and it was okay to carry but I was never able to shoot it really well. Guess the frame just didn't fit my hands 'cause even with Pachmayrs and namby-pamby factory loads, it only took about a dozen rounds before my fingers would begin to go numb. And, it's not like I'm over-sensitive to recoil; my other "carry piece" at the time was an alloy-frame .45 Commander loaded with G.I. Ball or Speer "Lawman" JHPs and I had no problem running a hundred rounds at a session through it.

Bill

[JohnSmiles]

My girlfriend at the time had a blue bobbed hammer bulldog in .44 also.
She was a shooter as sure as I was, and we both put hundreds of rounds through those two guns.
Neither of us had any problem with recoil, but the grips on hers fit her poorly.
I made her some oversize walnut grips, and that fixed that.

[C1PNR]

I bought one of those blue Bulldogs when they were first introduced and one of the first ones sold in our area. The only problem I've ever had was a weak factory main spring that was replaced in '94 or '95.

It's not a highly accurate, fun to shoot "recreational shooter" (I have others for that), but it does offer a light weight, large caliber, with heavy, blunt nosed SWC boolits moving at a reasonable velocity (~700fps or a little more) for close range defense.

Even with the Pachmyer grips I put on it, it's not a lot of fun to shoot more than 3 or 4 cylinders worth at any one time. About like shooting the really light weight, 2" .38 shrouded hammer 642-1 S&W.

[Ghugly]

My son and I have around 4K through our Bulldogs and are still tight as new. These are the newest models (same as the one pictured). If one of us has a problem, I'll report it. So far, they seem able to stand a lot more than I find comfortable. Our standard load is a 240g Keith over 4.7g of Trailboss. We also go through a regular session of half a box each of 245g Keith HP's over 7.5g of Unique, our carry load. And, I've pumped a box of 258g Keith's loaded with 9.3g of Unique through mine, with no ill effects. I wont carry a gun I don't shoot. If the Bulldogs turn into scrap, we'll get something else. So far, so good.

[Bret4207]

I'm lucky I guess. My old blue BD has never even hiccuped with anything I put through it. And it's accurate to boot, 2" left at 25 yards, but I can adjust for that. I know where there's a Target Bulldog thats been sitting in the case for sometime too.....