It was made in the 1975-1976 era, so mid-production run. Picked one up cheap a while back and just got around to shooting it. In very good condition except the bluing is turning plum. The double action pull was excessively heavy, so double action shooting was not very accurate. Single action shooting was actually pretty good. I took several different .38 Special loads to try.
Interestingly, my target load (358395 Hollow-Base bullet with 2.8gr of Bullseye) was inaccurate in my S&W 642. The bullets were keyholing at 7 yards. I theorized that the twist was too slow for the length of the bullet. The same exact load was tried in the Charter Arms. All the holes in the target were straight on and were more accurate. Surprised me. The barrels are too short for me to measure twist. My standard load (358477 Hollow-Point with 6.2gr of HS-6) was accurate in the S&W 642 and the Charter Arms both.
The Charter Arms has a really small set of grips (wood). The rubber boot grips on the 642 worked better with the heavier load. Surprisingly, the weight of the Charter Arms is only about 4oz heavier than the 642. I have not seen replacement grips for the Charter Arms that are similar to the 642. While they have both wood and rubber replacement grips for the Charter Arms they are quite a bit larger than the existing grips. While I don't doubt that they would handle the recoil better, that kind-of defeats the purpose of a CCW piece. I think I will be looking for a Pachmayr grip adapter for the S&W J-frame to add to it.
Anyway, I have shot a couple of Charter Arms in the past, but this is my first to own. Not a bad little gun for the price.