Late 80's era stratford made charter bulldog?

[megatronrules]

I'm looking at one of these I just found online. What was the qaulity reputation of these carter's? I called charter with the serial number and they said that it was made in 1988 at the Stratford factory. Anyone here have a bulldgo or charter arms from this era,if so is it a good gun?

It an exposed ejector and doesn't have the shrouds over the barrel. Thanks for any help.

 

[silicosys4]

As far as I know, its the Charter2000 era that was the poorest for quality control

Fun guns, I liked mine until I shot it loose within a few hundred rounds of moderate (850fps) 240gr. loads.
Keep the pressures down to plink, save the full pressure loads for carry, and you should do fine.

 

[shootniron]

What silicosys4 said...

 

[moxie]

Have a Bulldog Pug I bought in '88. Several thousand rounds through it, factory and reloads.

Still looks and functions like new. Nice gun!

 

[Panzerschwein]

I would seriously consider a new Charter Bulldog.

I recently bought one, and love it. Great gun for the money, and Charter Arm's customer service is SUPERB. Unless you are a collector, I'd buy a new one vs an older one. They are excellent.

 

[Drail]

I have a late 80s Stratford Bulldog Pug. It has never broken or failed to fire. I love it to death and I will never sell it. But the problem with used ones from that era is that a huge percentage of them will have been abused with stupid handloads and +P loads by guys who had no idea what they were doing. This is a very lightly built handgun. It's not a gun you want to take to the range every time you go and burn ammo through it. You probably would be better off with a new Charter - they would appear to be standing behind their current production guns 100%. Rossi and Taurus also built some very nice .44 Spl. snubs and they show up on the used market. (the older Taurus guns are NOTHING like the lousy stuff they are building now) If you find one stick with 200 gr. loads going 900 FPS. That's all you need. Forget about the CorBon/Buffalo Bore stuff. Best load I have found for the Charter (or any other .44 Spl. snub) is the Speer 200 gr. Gold Dot.

 

[MedWheeler]

I have an Undercover 38 from that plant and era, purchased the day I was sworn in as a LEO in 1987. Mine does have the anodized-aluminum shroud; I don't know how rare those were, as I've never seen another one from that era with the feature. I also don't know if they were available on the Bulldog series then, either.

Mine is a rock-solid and easily-handled shooter (as much as a .38 snub can be.) I carried it as a BU/OD gun for the first few years, and am glad to still have it.

As mentioned above, CA changed hands a couple of times, with notable declines in quality, before reverting back to its original hands as of recent. Anything before about 1992 or so, or after about 2005, is typically good, as long as it's branded "Charter Arms" and not "Charco" or "Charter 2000"..

 

[Drail]

All of the Stratford era Charters I have seen have the alum. bbl. shroud. On the Bulldog the shroud will "walk off" the actual barrel from inertia in high volume shooting. I just tap it back down with a wood mallet (it won't move more than 1/4 in. before you notice it). The other thing to know about Charter .44 Spl. snubs is that you must keep a close eye on every single screw on the gun. They WILL back out from recoil. I keep a couple of drivers that fit the screws in my bag and constantly check and re-tighten them. You can loc tite them but they'll still vibrate back out. Kind of like a Harley-Davidson. If you don't stay on it you'll be leaving a trail of parts on the ground......

 

[megatronrules]

all of the stratford era charters i have seen have the alum. Bbl. Shroud. On the bulldog the shroud will "walk off" the actual barrel from inertia in high volume shooting. I just tap it back down with a wood mallet (it won't move more than 1/4 in. Before you notice it). The other thing to know about charter .44 spl. Snubs is that you must keep a close eye on every single screw on the gun. They will back out from recoil. I keep a couple of drivers that fit the screws in my bag and constantly check and re-tighten them. You can loc tite them but they'll still vibrate back out. Kind of like a harley-davidson. If you don't stay on it you'll be leaving a trail of parts on the ground......

 

[megatronrules]

Hi drail is this the barrel shroud you mentioned? This is the bulldog I'm looking at its got a nice tight lockup. I only shoot standard. 44 special factory ammo. Will the shroud work loose given this,or is it just hot reloaded ammo that will cause it? Thanks

 

[Drail]

That is not the shroud used on the Bulldog Pug that I am familiar with. But it does look like the same size barrel dia. as the Pug with a different, lighter shroud. Don't worry if it works loose - it can be tapped back down - use a piece of wood - no steel hammers (it may not move at all). Hot reloaded ammo will loosen the action on the gun and teach you to flinch. It's not like the gun will blow up in your hand but the action will go out of time. Hot loads should be avoided. From a Bulldog they are no fun at all. Think of it like this - when you're throwing a .44 cal. bullet it really doesn't matter that much how fast it's going - and you're never going to achieve high velocities with a snub barrel anyway unless you neuter the cartridge by using very light bullets - in which case you may as well just buy a .357. Practice with standard loads until you can hit consistently with it. A standard .44 Spl. load will do just fine if you put it where it needs to go. Make sure to keep checking the screws for loosening. Don't try to get max torque on them or you can easily strip the head off - just snug them down. If I am reading that price tag correctly (349.99) the price is a little high for a used one. Try to haggle them down.

 

[rodinal220]

Stratford era Charters are GTG,yours was probably one of the last(1988) before Charter Arms went defunct and became Charco. Charters marked Charco or Charter 2000 are the ones with spotty QC.

Vintage Charters will either have no city location(earliest/60s) or Bridgeport(early 1970s) then later Stratford.

Current Charters are good guns. My new SS Bulldog has a very smooth trigger in DA and a crisp SA release.The gun is very accurate.

I wish one of the ammo companies would make a full wadcutter load,180-200gr,but designed for the Bulldog(800fps) and not at magnum velocities.

 

[CajunBass]

Rossi and Taurus also built some very nice .44 Spl. snubs and they show up on the used market. (the older Taurus guns are NOTHING like the lousy stuff they are building now) If you find one stick with 200 gr. loads going 900 FPS.

Not to put down the Charters, I've wanted one myself, but every one I've ever seen looked like someone had tried to turn them into a mini 44 Magnum. Beat up pretty bad. I've owned several Charter 38's both "new" and "old" and liked them, found them to be good well made guns, so if you find a 44 in good condition, it should be good.

A few weeks ago, I found one of those Taurus 44 Specials Drain mentioned above. Darn nice gun, but bigger than a Charter. It's also a five shooter, with a 3" barrel. As Drail said, keep the loads down, about the only factory ammo I could find are "cowboy" loads and they shoot fine. I'm going to stick with a load about like he mentioned with the 200 grain bullet.



With the cowboy loads, or with reloads in that class this is one fun gun to shoot. I'm sure a Charter would be too.

 

[Drail]

Nice revolver. I used to work for a dealer who sold a lot of Taurus revolvers - I wish now that I had bought a few of those at dealer cost. We never had to send any of them back for repairs.