Charter Arms Target Bulldog 4" 44 Special Revolver - Stainless/Silver, 4" Barrel, 5 Rounds, Polymer Grips, 3-Dot Sights

I bought this to be my back country hiking companion and it serves that role very well. With the 4" barrel and adjustable sights it is easy to shoot well. I've settled on 180 grain full wadcutter hard cast bullets over 6 grains of Trail Boss as my standard carry load.

I saw one of these a couple of decades ago, wanted one ever since. Got this one for my wife, and we got a 3" bbl bulldog in blue as well. Now if you compare the Target Bulldog to my S&W M29, the Bulldog is a chevy and the M29 is a Rolls. That being said, I simply love what Charter Arms offers in these little guns. 44 caliber punch in a 21 ounce package (19 oz for the snubnose) with decent trigger pull and good accuracy. I'm not a big handgun shooter, but shooting single action the Target Bulldog gets groups that are virtually the same as my S&W. Recoil: Shooting normal 44 special loads in this thing produces about the same recoil and medium strengh magnums shot in the model 29. This is because the M29 weighs 44 ounces, against the 21 ounces for the Charter Arms weapon. (These numbers derived from a digital scale, a chronograph, and standard recoil calculations) Bigger grips from Pachmyr really help, but to make this a loveable shooter for my wife, I'm loading 4.7 grains of Trail Boss under a 165 grain cast bullet from Badman. This produces about 600 fps, recoil equivalent to my Smith and Wesson shooting normal 44 specials, and is an accurate load to boot. Bottom line: My wife LOVES these Charter Arms handguns, and my Daughter is planning to get one. You can't go wrong, as long as you understand these are lightweight shooters, not big heavy cadillacs. For the price, you REALLY can't go wrong. And Buds, as always, was flawless. 8^)

Charter has come a long way. The pistol locks up tight, has a decent finish for what it is. The rear sight is adjustable as advertised, but is rather flimsy and hard to adjust. I carried a pug back in the eighties which served me well and brought alot of piece of mind as I rode Marta during the early morning hours in Atlanta. The old saying about Charters meant to be carried alot and shot a little might not hold true anymore for the new Charters. I put 100 rounds downrange. No issues whatsoever. Goes bang, bang everytime. Recoil is a little brisk, but no more than should be expected for a lightweight .44. I'd risk my life on it. Glad to have it on my nightstand, and for the money, I'd buy another charter again over the problems I've had more than once with Taurus revolvers.