CA Bulldog fans...What are you running in yours?

[idahomike]

I just picked up a late 70s vintage Charter Arms Bulldog in near perfect shape. Ive wanted one for years and finally found one from a customer. Shoots my pet .44 Special load right to the sights and pretty danged accurately too.
I won't stray from my favorite, just curious as to what others are using.

[Catshooter]

I like an old Lyman 429421 with one tin to 20 pure lead over 6.5 grains of Universal Clays. I needed the older mould because my Bulldogs throats are .432 and that is what it drops at.

Shoots well. They are a fine little weapon, aren't they.


Cat

[idahomike]

They are a nice lil wheelgun. Truthfully, I havent been as excited about a new gun in ages.
My pet load isnt quite as detailed. Still loading out of a box of commercial cast. 430 SWCs. Under that 7. 4gr of Unique. It shoots well in the Bulldog and my Folt SAA so Im not going to overanalyze at this point, but I think a full WC would be fantastic as well.

[Forrest r]

I've owned bulldogs since the 80's (2"bbl'd), they seem to do their best with bullet in the 200gr to 240gr range. I get the best performance with hp bullets in the 220gr range with full house loads in the short bbl.

The mihec hbwc lead boolits (220gr) are excellent for plinking, 5gr of bullseye, wst, unique, ww231 all do extremely well with this boolit in the 44spl. I also make a jacketed hbwc bullet out of 40s&w brass (220gr) that will do what the mihec hbwc can do. Both make a very formable sd round when they are turned around. A picture of mihec cast 38spl hbwc's & 9mm cases turned into hbwc's (both 147gn) top, mihec cast 44spl hbwc's & 40s&w cases turned into hbwc's (both 220gr) bottom.

68955

The ca's that I own/use, a 38spl and a 44spl.

68957

What a mihec hbwc (44spl) looks like when they are turned around to make a huge hp.

68956

The jacketed hbwc's that were turned around to make huge hp's, the 38spl's (148gr) are 9mm cases and the 44spl's (220gr) are 40s&w cases.

68958

[Silver Jack Hammer]

RCBS 44-250-K ww lubed with Alox over 5.2 gr Bullseye. I've carried mine as a back up gun every day for years. Mine looks exactly like yours. A local favorite gunshop guys told me they think the guns of this era are better than the new ones.

For a holster just use one made for the Ruger SP101. I use Greg Kramer's Pro-Line Leather.

[x101airborne]

MP 432-260 hp comes out to 245 grains with a hollow point I could take a bath in. Plain base and driven by 10 grains of Blue Dot.

[gunfan]

I have shot a great deal of 200 grain "Cowboy Action" ammunition through my Stainless Steel version. There's not much to tell, except that they were of the SWCHP configuration.

Scott

[HeavyMetal]

try the 429348 this is a 190 grain full wadcutter and I shot a bunch of these out of my Bulldog!

comfortable full caliber hole, back area of range looked like someone emptied his "big bore" hole punch before he left the range.

as I recall it was 4.5 grains WW452AA federal std primer and the 429328

do some checking before copying my load

[palmettosunshine]

http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff1/palmettosunshine/Bullets002.jpg (http://s237.photobucket.com/user/palmettosunshine/media/Bullets002.jpg.html)

Lee 200 gr. (actually 206 avg. with straight WW) 429-200-RF. Have used BE and Trail Boss. Didn't care for the Bullseye (can't remember the load and of course I didn't write it down since it was one of the very first loads I ever tried....) but the Trail Boss with 4.5gr. is outstanding. Enough ummph that you know you're still shooting a big bore, but still soft enough for arthritic hands and old revolvers.

[Forrest r]

It's 5.0gr of ww452 with the lyman wc, cast/loaded/shot 1000's of them over the years. Now I shoot the mihec hbwc's with 5.0gr of ww452.

I'm about out of ww452, going to have to try wst one of these days.

69316

[TCLouis]

My current version SS B'Dog is a exercise in futility. After last return trip to Charter I threw it into the back of the safe.

[FergusonTO35]

Mine is a six shot .38 Special. It gets a steady diet of 158 grain flat points over 5.8 grains of Accurate #5. Also, Vintage Gun Grips has some very nice poly grips for these guns that are modeled after the originals. I have their round butt Bulldog grips on mine and they look and feel great!

http://vintagegungrips.net/charregrmsi.html
69706

[CJR]

My standard CB for my CA Bulldogs is the Lyman 429421 sized 0.4315"D and lubed with LBT Blue. My defensive load is 7.5 gr. of Unique. My range load is 5.2 gr. of Trail Boss. For fun days at the range, I load a 320 gr.LBT LFN and hold on tight!

Best regards,

CJR

[idahomike]

I appreciate everyones replies. There are some interesting loads in use. The swaged .40 cases seem like a real nifty load. I do find it hard to stray from the good ol' 240 SWC though. Maybe I need to be alittle more open minded.

[Combat Diver]

I've got a older 3" CA Bulldog. Shoots great with 240 gr LSWC under Unique. Just got a two cav Lee TL 240gr SWC mold but haven't loaded those boolits yet.

CD

[CJR]

Combat Diver,

Thanks for your service to our country! It is greatly appreciated.

Best regards,

CJR

[x101airborne]

Intentionally typing in caps here for yelling....

DONT USE MY LOAD OF BLUE DOT IN CA 44 BULLDOG!!!!!
Mine blew up the other day and just wanted to save someone else some danger. Read my thread before proceeding.

[hicard]

x101airborne Sorry to hear about the blow up. What was your seating depth of that load? I want to check the load out with my quickload program.

[Dan Cash]

I will second what x101Airborne said. In fact several of the loads I see on this thread are pretty hard on a revolver. I use a S&W 24 3" and find a 240 gr bullet over 7 gr. Unique all I want and it is hard on my gun. A 240-250 gr bullet over 6 gr of Unique is pretty potent and kills dogs, coyotes and deer very well.

[slohunter]

I have an older 3'' Bulldog in SS. Wouldn't trade it for anything. Your right about Bluedot, 9 grs under a 214 gr Lee cast swc, very irratic ignition. Went back to 7 grs of Unique. Same results in my .357 Magpug.