Confessions of a Charter basher

[Dead Ed]

My good friend got himself a Charter Undercover to broaden his horizon in the world of revolvers. We took it to the range and while I was busy firing round after round flawlessly from my G23 :) he was fighting light primer strikes and cylinder rotation problems.

Well, my Glock went into its holster and the Charter took a trip to the gunsmith that day, and we went on with our lives. I proceed to bash Charter on another thread when the subject came up, thinking I knew something on the subject.

Well the Charter is back from the gunsmith. Turns out the gun is from Charter Arms, not Charter 2000. Also it is one of the very early Charters and probably has a very high round count through it. It just needed a little service and it was back in working order, though I’m sure later models feature many improvements.

So let me be the first to say I was wrong! They are compact, well priced… maybe I can hide it under the pile so the little woman won't notice I bought another gun;N

[JLaw]

Glad to know I'm not the only one putting guns into hiding!!;)
"No baby, I've had that gun for YEARS now, you've just never seen it!"

[michael t]

I have a old undercover from the 1st CA still sees some CC and range time . Great little gun.

[Sam White]

I used to have an Undercover .38 Special with the 3" barrel. Strangely enough its one of the few guns I regret selling. It was very light and handy with its aluminum frame and pencil barrel, especially for the $175 I paid for it. It got 2.5"-3.0" groups @ 15 yds. with Black Hills ammo if I really concentrated. My only gripe was having to wipe the back of the barrel clean every 30 rounds or so to keep the cylinder turning.

[Rexzilla]

Never really had problems with the Undercover series. The problems I had was with the Bulldog series in 44 special. They loosen up too much and they also bite my hand. The one I had was in 3 inch. I still have a hankering for a 3 inch in .44 special...but it will be a Smith next time around.

[cowboywannabe]

i had a blued and a stainless .44spl c.a. bulldog in the mid 80's.

they both never should have made it out of the factory.

BOTH of them shaved serious lead when fired d/a.
sent them both back with samples of the cressant moon shaped lead and "silver tip" ammo shavings.

got a note back each time stating no problems found with the guns.

dont know about the .38 snubbies, but my bulldog .44spls were real world SNS!!!


the stainless ones cylinder stop (the little shark fin shaped piece that stops the cylinder from over rotating....) wore down so much with in 200 rounds that you could manually rotate the cylinder passed its stop with only a slight feel of a catch.

[Washington,D.C.]

I have a Charter Arms Pit Bull.I looked at a few of them before I bought one as most had huge cylinder gaps.It's chambered in 9mm Federal and I only bought it because it also shoots 9x19.I had a 9mm Ruger Security Six when I bought it and I still have both.I think Charter Arms went out of business/changed owers a couple of times.

[Laserlips]

I purchased a new Charter Arms Undercover in Jacksonville, Fl. back in the early 1970's for (I think) $78.00.

It has been an excellent little firearm from day one. It is light, has a transfer bar, accuracy is certainly up to par with my more recent J-Frame Smiths, and Colt Cobras.

My wife has small hands and she is more comfortable with the little Charter than the others too.

I think the original Charter Arms Undercovers were excellent little firearms. In fact I had an Aunt who had me pick up one for her. I made sure it was loaded with sjhp's too.

In 1976 my Aunt did a very adequate job of blowing her brains out with the combo......... (Too much information?)




;9