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Charter Arms Bulldog .44 Special.

8K views 16 replies 10 participants last post by  Mojohand 
#1 ·
Picked up my Bulldog .44 Special today.

 
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#3 ·
21oz I believe empty. I like mine for what it is.
 
#6 ·
Bought a used one a coupl of years ago. Cleaned up nicely and is a hoot to shoot!

Superb SA pull and very carry-able. When I hauled mine around I stoked it (and two speed loaders) full of 200 gr Gold Dots at about 880 fps. My buddy liked it so much he bought a new one.



 
#10 ·
The Charter Arms might be light weight but I think it is still a tad larger frame gun then the Ruger SP101. I do not see a 5 shot 44 Special SP101 better think of a 5 shot in a GP100 Frame there you have the strength for a 5 shot 44 magnum plus .44 Special. But who knows maybe a 5 shot .44spec./.45acp might be possible because of lower pressure loads it would be a sweet gun in a SP101 frame. BTW Mojohand what caliber is your Charter Arms revolver??
 
#17 ·
The Charter Arms might be light weight but I think it is still a tad larger frame gun then the Ruger SP101. I do not see a 5 shot 44 Special SP101 better think of a 5 shot in a GP100 Frame there you have the strength for a 5 shot 44 magnum plus .44 Special. But who knows maybe a 5 shot .44spec./.45acp might be possible because of lower pressure loads it would be a sweet gun in a SP101 frame. BTW Mojohand what caliber is your Charter Arms revolver??

.44 Special
 
#13 ·
I just picked one up this weekend. It was one of the guns I had always wanted but rarely ever saw used. Well one showed up in the used rack at the gun shop and I took it home. Surprisingly light. Trigger is good, not a Smith for sure, but it feels good to me. I haven't shot it yet but I plan to next week. 44 Spl may be a little pricey but it is a great self defense round.
 
#14 ·
The 44 Special is a great round but it's handicapped by low maximum allowable pressures. Factory 44 Special cartridges has a max pressure of 15,500 psi which is fairly low (for comparison, standard pressure 38 Special is 17K). The 44 magnum tops out at 36,000 psi which is often wayyyyyy more than is needed but explains why guns chambered for 44 Special don't need to be as heavy as those made for the magnum.

The 44 Special is a great cartridge when it can be safely pushed a little faster than factory specs allow but that requires exceeding SAAMI specifications, which no gun or ammunition manufacturer is going to do. You will rarely see a factory 44 Special loading that can push a 240 grain bullet past 800 fps and often they are even slower. The heavy 44 slug doesn't need a lot of speed to be effective but it does need a little more than 750-800 fps. If you can get it into the 900-1000 fps range it becomes an awesome cartridge!
In my opinion, what we need is a 44 Special +P but such an animal does not exist, at least not a SAAMI sanctioned one.

All of that being said, the Charter Arms Bulldog is plenty strong. Factory 44 Special ammo doesn't abuse the gun.

Now if...........Ruger would ever make a GP-100 in 44 Special that could take a little hotter cartridge than the factory 44 Special........I think they would have a market for it.
 
#15 ·
For the market of a 'city concealed carry revolver', I think it is about perfect. No need for barn burner rounds for up close two legged confrontations in my opinion. Standard .44 Special should work just fine. When I go into the woods, a different gun/load is carried. Right tool for the right job. No one gun can do it all.
 
#16 ·
For the market of a 'city concealed carry revolver', I think it is about perfect. No need for barn burner rounds for up close two legged confrontations in my opinion. Standard .44 Special should work just fine. ...........
Agreed.
The 44 Special can serve as a SD cartridge but It would be nice if the SAAMI specs weren't held so low for that cartridge.
There are some decent factory loads available for the 44 Special such as:
The Federal 200 grain SWC-HP and The Speer Gold Dot with a 200 grain HP. Unfortunately, most of the factory ammo utilizes a bullet of 200 grains or less. Some of the offerings from Buffalo Bore look impressive until you notice the bullet weight. They trade weight for velocity and get some impressive speeds but at that point you've defeated the reason for going to a big bore cartridge.

The 44 Special does its best work with projectiles in the 240-250 grain range and if you have a suitably strong gun; 900-1000 fps. (which is beyond acceptable pressures).

A factory loaded 200 grain 44 slug is still capable of good SD work and it is of course still .429" in diameter but go much below that weight and penetration suffers even at higher velocities.
It is very similar to the lightweight 38 Special rounds. You can push 110 grain 38 Special +P to some impressive speeds but they shed that energy quickly and don't penetrate nearly as well as the slower 158 grain projectiles.
If all you look at is velocity, you're missing a lot of information.
You can make a 165 grain 44 caliber bullet (.429" diameter) go really fast but the larger frontal area of that big fat slug will dump that velocity faster than a similar 158 grain 38 caliber slug (.357" diameter). It's easier to push an ice pick through a block of clay than a broomstick.

In all of my years of playing around with handguns, I've come to the conclusion that "Standard" bullet weights for caliber became the "Standard weights" for a reason. It's not a fluke that 38 Specials work really well right around 158 grains and 44 Specials work really well right around 240 grains !!!
 
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