Charter Arms, part II
That's a Charter Arms Bulldog, the bigger brother to the .38 Special Undercover I posted last week. The good folks from Charter Arms were kind enough to send this one along with the Undercover for testing and evaluation purposes. While the Undercover will by nature be compared to the Smith & Wesson J-frame and the Ruger LCR, the Bulldog is in a league pretty much of its own. I owned a Taurus model 431 many years ago but have long since divested of big bore revolvers save the S&W model 629.
This is a big bore revolver, with five shots of .44 Special in a lightweight revolver (21 ounces empty). It's about the same size as a Smith & Wesson L-frame, as it fits in the same holster Michael made for my S&W 242 ti. I wound up getting rid of the Taurus because .44 Special was so expensive to shoot; it hasn't gotten cheaper, but the rest of the ammo that I stock has gotten more expensive so the gap isn't as noticeable.
Assuming I can scare up some .44 Special ammunition, I'll have a full range report on the Bulldog at a later date.
That is all.
10 comments:
44 special is one of those calibers that cries out to be reloaded. A quick calculation shows about 22 cents a round, and that's with fancy jacketed soft point bullets. Plain cast would lower it a few cents more.
I have one of those, and love it. Light weight to carry, and throws a big bullet downrange. Great gun for what it is.
Zeeke, I reload my .44mag range ammo to about .44spl levels. My current cost per round using commercially made lead bullets (240gr LSWC) is under 13 cents a round. Granted I do buy components in bulk to get a better price then just buying 100pk of bullets or a 1lb bottle of powder from the local funstore. Still, seeing as commercially made .44 is running 75cents a round or more, even 22 cents is a good deal.
Most of the cost was the expensive bullet, $192/k for 240gr JSP. Buying those bullets in bulk gets it down to 168/k. My bulk cheap coated lead supplier doesn't make 44s and I was too lazy to shop around.
Last time I bought the lead .44s I paid about $90/k shipped.
I'm a huge fan of Missouri Bullet Company for my cast lead bullets. Great product, and they offer a discount to clubs, LEO and active/retired military. Cheap enough that it's generally not worth the time and effort to cast my own.
Chris loves his. I find it only mildly uncomfortable to shoot.
wantwantwant
Have one. Carry it every day in a Galco belt-slide holster. Reload w/ Affordable Brass & Bullets 230gr FMC-TC over 6.5 to 7.0 grs Unique.
Chronos out at 996 fps.
Also have loaded w/Blazer "flying ashtray" 180gr JHP, but the aluminum cases stick in the cylinder, so gun becomes a slow-reloading 5-shooter. The JHP chronos 1004.
I never ran my hot (hunting-only) loads across a chrono, but they're a grain shy of a Keith load: 240gr LSWC with big flat nose on top of 16gr of 2400.
"Stout" is a kind decription.
Cowboy loads are an absolute hoot to shoot, though - the .44Spl equivalent of my mouse-fart .38 loads.
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