Charter Arms Bulldog & .44 Spl

Status
Not open for further replies.
If I ever run across an old 3" that seems good to go locally and the price is right I'll get it. Never owned and older one in .44. Just some in .38, .22, and one lots of folks probably nevr heard of...chambered for the 9mm Federal cartridge. That was a rimmed 9mm cartridge made for specifically what was called the Charter Arms Pit Bull Revolver...not the same Pit Bull CA makes today.

http://www.ammo-one.com/9mmFedRim.html Obsolete gun & cartridge these days.
 
Cocked & Locked said:
If I ever run across an old 3" that seems good to go locally and the price is right I'll get it. Never owned and older one in .44. Just some in .38, .22, and one lots of folks probably nevr heard of...chambered for the 9mm Federal cartridge. That was a rimmed 9mm cartridge made for specifically what was called the Charter Arms Pit Bull Revolver...not the same Pit Bull CA makes today.

http://www.ammo-one.com/9mmFedRim.html Obsolete gun & cartridge these days.
Click to expand...
Surely one could get the cylinder cut for moonclips and shoot 9mm Luger.
 
Cocked & Locked said:
6.0 grains of Unique and 240 grain SWC's are my favorite load. A couple of hand loaded shot shells with Speer Shot Cups and #7 1/2 shot added to the cylinder for the warm weather pit vipers.

View attachment 853887
Click to expand...


My dog likes 6.3 gr unique behind 240 gr WFP. I load the Speer capsules with #8 shot over some Bullseye or Red Dot. The little 2.5" Bulldog patterns much better than the 4" 629. Maybe the shallow rifling and shorter barrel?

Be well
20170909_163050.jpg
20190119_152306.jpg
 
Last edited:
Buckeye63 said:
This 44spl has all but taken over as my pocket gun @ 17oz its a dream to carry ... Has a bit of a punch when fired !!!!View attachment 853448
Click to expand...
I sold my Boomer at the beginning of the plandemic for almost twice what I paid for it three years before the plandemic. Before all the panic and lunacy, Charter had a hard time selling a snub-nosed, ported, .44 revolver with no sights and a guaranteed SMACK to the palm every time it went off. Post panic, they can't make enough of them. I bought mine new in early 2017 for $249 on sale... sold it in late 2020 for $450 on consignment at a LGS same day as the paperwork got approved by the Sheriff, before it hit the shelf. I think discussions about Charter Arms' products increase as people feel less secure about walking the streets unarmed. They are one of the few constants in the gun industry: inexpensive, no-nonsense, utilitarian and fully-functional for their intended purpose of concealed-carry self-defense.

My advise to the OP is: get one. Actually, no - get two. Get both "Specials" - one in .44 and one in .38. Forget the rumors and gossip, get a couple and shoot them. They hold their value.
 
Cocked & Locked said:
If I ever run across an old 3" that seems good to go locally and the price is right I'll get it. Never owned and older one in .44. Just some in .38, .22, and one lots of folks probably nevr heard of...chambered for the 9mm Federal cartridge. That was a rimmed 9mm cartridge made for specifically what was called the Charter Arms Pit Bull Revolver...not the same Pit Bull CA makes today.

http://www.ammo-one.com/9mmFedRim.html Obsolete gun & cartridge these days.
Click to expand...
I remember those. I tried one out and decided to pass. The fellow who bought it told me he used .38S&W cases sized in a 9mm die and loaded to 9mm+P starting load data.
 
GeoDudeFlorida said:
I remember those. I tried one out and decided to pass. The fellow who bought it told me he used .38S&W cases sized in a 9mm die and loaded to 9mm+P starting load data.
Click to expand...
I think I read something about cutting down .38 super cases to 9mm length to basically achieve the same result as the 9mm Federal? Aren’t .38 super cases semi rimmed and tapered? I’m sure I’m wrong, but I do remember talk of trimming a case. Maybe it was the .38 s&w......
 
Brian Pearce on the 44 Special.pdf (goodrichfamilyassoc.org) this was passed to me so I will pass to you. Category 1 loads, 15,500 PSI (standard pressure) and lower are what is recommended for the Bulldogs. Right now I have settled on the 245 grain 429421 SWC over 6.5 grains of Unique, still snappy but controllable.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0493.JPG
    IMG_0493.JPG
    147.2 KB · Views: 22
BLACKHAWKNJ said:
When the CA Bulldog was introduced in 1974 Skeeter Skelton wrote that his favorite load of a 240 SWC over 7.5 grains of Unique kicked too much.
Click to expand...

Yeah...I don't think I'd want to shoot skeeter loads through my Bulldog. I imagine that it could handle them, or at least a few of them, but the recoil would really stink. I load 240g SWCs over 5g of Unique for range work through the Bulldog.
 
Typetwelve said:
Yeah...I don't think I'd want to shoot skeeter loads through my Bulldog. I imagine that it could handle them, or at least a few of them, but the recoil would really stink. I load 240g SWCs over 5g of Unique for range work through the Bulldog.
Click to expand...
Have you ever chrony'd that load? I'm guessing from a 3" bbl you're getting maybe 650-700fps out of it. That's pretty mild, even for range work, but still probably plenty enough for end of the hallway or bedroom door distances if you empty it.
 
I settled on 6.5 grains of unique behind a 429421 that weighs 255 grain. It barely makes 700 FPS from the 3” barrel. 5 grains sound awfully light to me, the lightest I would go is 6.
 
wcwhitey said:
I settled on 6.5 grains of unique behind a 429421 that weighs 255 grain. It barely makes 700 FPS from the 3” barrel. 5 grains sound awfully light to me, the lightest I would go is 6.
Click to expand...
For my 3" Taurus 441 .44Spl. I put 6.5gr. of Unique under a hard cast 240gr. LSWC for just under 800fps. I consider that a light load for end of the hallway/bedroom door. The recoil is less than a .357mag with wadcutters. ;)
 
GeoDudeFlorida said:
Have you ever chrony'd that load? I'm guessing from a 3" bbl you're getting maybe 650-700fps out of it. That's pretty mild, even for range work, but still probably plenty enough for end of the hallway or bedroom door distances if you empty it.
Click to expand...

Funny enough, I did. Those loads came in at 637 fps average. I wouldn't use those for self defense, but they make the bulldog semi-pleasant to shoot.

Figuring my Bulldog is an "around the house" business gun, I typically leave it loaded with Hornady Critical defense, for now.

I bought some hard cast 185g wadcutters with the intention of making some copy-cat loads like Underwood/Buffalo Bore's 200g WCs. At under 1K fps, I just don't have a bunch of hope of a hollowpoint really expanding properly...so a hard cast WC seems like a better solution.
 
CE4D0601-24F5-4E41-852D-2E0C59CF5AEB.jpeg
Typetwelve said:
Funny enough, I did. Those loads came in at 637 fps average. I wouldn't use those for self defense, but they make the bulldog semi-pleasant to shoot.

Figuring my Bulldog is an "around the house" business gun, I typically leave it loaded with Hornady Critical defense, for now.

I bought some hard cast 185g wadcutters with the intention of making some copy-cat loads like Underwood/Buffalo Bore's 200g WCs. At under 1K fps, I just don't have a bunch of hope of a hollowpoint really expanding properly...so a hard cast WC seems like a better solution.
Click to expand...

The loads in the right are Rim Rocks 185 SWC-HP that I settled in 7.8 grains of Unique to keep pressure well below the 15,500 max. These are for the Bulldog specifically. I have not put them thru a chronograph but expect them to be 850-900 fps. Not sure if they will expand at that velocity but they have a very sharp SWC profile and are pleasant to shoot. I could probably step it up a tenth or two. am going to up the load to 8.3 for my other .44s. I think that would give 925 or better and have a chance of expanding. Brinnel is 12 I believe so they are not very soft.
 
wcwhitey said:
The loads in the right are Rim Rocks 185 SWC-HP that I settled in 7.8 grains of Unique to keep pressure well below the 15,500 max. These are for the Bulldog specifically. I have not put them thru a chronograph but expect them to be 850-900 fps. Not sure if they will expand at that velocity but they have a very sharp SWC profile and are pleasant to shoot. I could probably step it up a tenth or two. am going to up the load to 8.3 for my other .44s. I think that would give 925 or better and have a chance of expanding. Brinnel is 12 I believe so they are not very soft.
Click to expand...

I have these here:

https://www.mattsbullets.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=70&products_id=250

I'm not sure how deep those Rim Rocks seat in the brass compared to those 185g WCs.

There's a snip of Lyman load data for those, shows a UNQ charge of 7.0-11.5g. I think I'll start at 7g, then try out a 7.5g, depending on how hot those are.
 
Hockey7711 said:
Just bought one, and picked it up today, and took it to the range.

I had problems with it locking up a few times.

It fired very well using a 200 grain handload.

Recoil was not a problem at all.

Any ideas about the lock up problem?
Click to expand...

Sometimes on a new Charter the cylinder release maybe over tightened ... also the ejector rod maybe sticking ...
sorry about the late reply
 
I bought my first Bulldog in late '74. Great little gun, $149 plus tax helped a lot! I was young & poor.

Had no chronograph of course, not in those days. I worked up to Elmer's 18.5 grains of 2400 under his 255 grain bullet, but didn't care for it much and POA & POI were very different. Backed down to 7.5 grains of Unique, that worked well. A bit less kick too. :)

The designer of it said that you couldn't blow the cylinder of a Bulldog up with 2400 and I believe him. You can shake it to pieces though and it takes fewer rounds than you might think with Elmer's load.

I don't want to come across as some tough guy or something. I've never fired a 12 gauge that I didn't hate the recoil. In rifles I top out at .30-06. So I'm no he-man. But recoil in short guns has never really bothered me much. Although 18.5 grains . . . that was more'n I liked, for sure.

After ignoring my Bulldogs for years I've started shooting them again. I still prefer the 240+ sized bullets but my 'go-to' load ran them at 820 feet. Now that I'm an old guy I could peel them back a bit. Probably drop them to about 7 to 750. With that big and heavy a chunk of lead that's plenty for what I need. If I lived in snake country I'd have a shot load up front for sure. That's one place that rollers really shine over autos, generally.

And you can't beat Charter's customer service. I bought a stainless Bulldog that had spent about five years in a briefcase in the trunk of a car. In two or three inches of water. Pitted the frame & cylinder pretty well as well as ruining some internal parts. The ammo didn't look all that healthy either. $49.95 and it came back with a new cylinder and all new action works. Shoots like a champ now.

Great little guns especially if you stick with the ones that say Charter Arms on them and nothing else. No Charco, Charter 2000. Bad juju.


Cat
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

Mr. Mosin
  • Locked
Charter Bulldog Classic
2 3
Replies
68
Views
5K
Mr. Mosin
Mr. Mosin
G
  • Locked
First Gen CA Bulldog .44 vs Current CA Bulldog .44 offerings
Replies
13
Views
1K
rodinal220
rodinal220
Garandimal
  • Locked
Charter Arms 5-Shot Bulldog (.44 SPL) and Mag Pug (.38 SPL/.357 Mag) 4.2" Bbl. Target.
Replies
9
Views
911
Buckeye63
Buckeye63
Tegun
  • Locked
Bulldog 44 Ammo Question
2
Replies
44
Views
4K
dickydalton
dickydalton
S
  • Locked
Bulldog 44 Spl
2 3 4
Replies
77
Views
6K
GBExpat
GBExpat
Back
Top