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Post by mk70ss on Feb 22, 2023 14:19:38 GMT -5
 Just picked up this Charter Arms Police Bulldog. They did not make many of these. It is a six shot .38, rather than the five shot. Gun is easily 99%. Looks to have been hardly shot, if ever and never holster carried. |
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jeffh
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Post by jeffh on Feb 22, 2023 16:48:48 GMT -5
Stratford era! Halcyon days! VERY cool gun!
What's the name on the other side of the barrel?
The rarest ones I've ever had were a 3" Undercover and a 3" "Pocket Target," which was renamed to "Pathfinder" shortly after introduction.
I love these guns. It never occurred to me to "collect" them, as I took them for granted.
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Post by mk70ss on Feb 22, 2023 17:07:36 GMT -5
Stratford era! Halcyon days! VERY cool gun! What's the name on the other side of the barrel? The rarest ones I've ever had were a 3" Undercover and a 3" "Pocket Target," which was renamed to "Pathfinder" shortly after introduction. I love these guns. It never occurred to me to "collect" them, as I took them for granted. The name on the barrel is “Police Bulldog .38” |
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jeffh
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Post by jeffh on Feb 22, 2023 18:22:41 GMT -5
Cool! The Police Bulldog was typically a 4".
I BELIEVE, but can't recall for certain, that it was made on the Bulldog frame size, which is only very sightly larger than the original 5-shot, 38 frame size.
The tapered barrels with the soldered-on front sight were my favorites.
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Post by Lee Martin on Feb 23, 2023 8:16:19 GMT -5
Thanks for posting this. I never knew they made a 6-shot .38. All this talk of Charter Arms moved me to load up some light .44 Special. Hope to get one of my Bulldogs out this weekend. -Lee www.singleactions.com"Chasing perfection five shots at a time" |
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Post by bula on Feb 23, 2023 9:12:50 GMT -5
Pretty cool ! If I had to guess, bet the Boomer doesn't go over well and will soon be "rare". Oh, edited in, get the Crimson Trace grips for the Boomer. Gave mine to a NIL that has to protect my niece and 2 great nieces
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jeffh
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Post by jeffh on Feb 23, 2023 9:46:08 GMT -5
I'm no expert, but I have taken a much more intense interest in these things than most who encounter them - Charter Revolvers. They are the coolest little guns. Recently, I passed on a little, five-shot FOUR-INCH (TAPERED, no less) barreled Charter 38. Looked like it had some miles on it and I was sorely tempted. I surely do not need such a thing, but it was just SO cool that I really thought about bidding on it. I know I've posted this before, so if anyone is getting sick of this link, my apologies, but it's easy to overlook a post on a Charter. Whenever someone finds a new one or shares one they've not had out to play with for a while, I like to toss this out for others to enjoy. Scroll down to No.5 in the loose chronology assembled by this gentleman. It's the SIX-shot, Police Bulldogs. unblinkingeye.com/Guns/CAR/car.htmlThere are so many Charter revolvers I'd love to go back in time and get when they came out. I'm a big fan of 3" barreled DA revolvers, because that suits how I use a DA revolver, but for some strange reason, the SIX-inch, tapered barrel 357 Mag pushes some buttons for me. No idea what I'd use such a thing for, but it sure is cool. |
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jeffh
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Post by jeffh on Feb 23, 2023 9:52:42 GMT -5
OH! And hang onto those grips!!
The Pachmyer Compact is VERY popular for these, but I personally find them too large - antithetical to the theme of the design and too big around to get a firm grip for me.
Contrary to what seems to work for everyone else, I find that the small grip allows me to really hang onto the gun, preventing it from moving within my grip and bashing my middle finger. Sure, you're pulling the trigger both back and UP without a grip filler, but it gets the axis of the bore lower too. Those "squarish" grips are t he best of the small ones, because the smooth, more rounded ones do not give you a sense of which way the muzzle is pointed, the the squarish ones do. With your grips, you get something of a radial "register" as a tactile reference in your grasp on the gun.
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jeffh
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Post by jeffh on Feb 23, 2023 11:18:05 GMT -5
For the sake of the photo, check this one out. SIX-shot, Police Undercover Not mine, not trying to sell it, The prices for used ones,....HOLY COW! There's a 2.5" stainless Bulldog on this site for $600! A 4" Target Bulldog for $800!
If I were to eve have a 22 LR handgun again, THIS is what I would want:
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Post by Lee Martin on Feb 23, 2023 11:30:44 GMT -5
The Bulldog I really want to get is the old model stainless 3" from the 1980's:  I have the blued version. Would love to add the SS counterpart. -Lee www.singleactions.com"Chasing perfection five shots at a time" |
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Post by bula on Feb 23, 2023 11:36:41 GMT -5
Ha ! that's my baby. I found the woods panels were staying in the drawer and ended up giving them to a guy in Montana, think from here or Rugerforum. The compact Pachy's have been on it since first tried.
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Post by bula on Feb 23, 2023 11:46:57 GMT -5
The knurled end of the ejector rod wants to come loose. Found mine missing once after a day hiking/atv'ing. A call to CA got me all 3 last pieces in the mail in a week, FREE. I check it often now. Should put a drop of goo on it..red or blue ?
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jeffh
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Post by jeffh on Feb 23, 2023 11:51:37 GMT -5
Well, if anyone has any doubt in their mind just who on this forum might be the dumbest one,...
I've had TWO of those and let BOTH get away. Bought one, brand new in '82 or '83, for just over $200 and one used in the early nineties for $140.
When I let them get away, they were still plentiful and cheap. I asked the guy selling the used one why it was so cheap, assuming it had issues. Well, I pushed a button with THAT question. He went off on a colorful diatribe regarding how people aren't smart enough to know a good gun when they see it and he couldn't sell them for any more than about half what they were new at the time. Needless to say, I gave him $140 really fast and we hit it off. Visited with him every time he set up at a show after that.
THAT is THE 44 Special CCW/Trail-Gun extraordinaire - of all time. Both of mine shot very well and were carried a LOT. They were both also shot a LOT, in fact the first one was my only handgun for several years, while in the Army. It was the only gun I had at all for about the first two thirds of that time. Had to travel light, because I traveled a lot. If I wanted to shoot - THAT is what I had to shoot. I traded the last one for a used, 3" SP101 in 357 ($300 price tag) in 2003. Gave the guy the stainless Bulldog and a hundred bucks. The SP101 was nice, but it wasn't a 44.
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jeffh
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Posts: 1,622
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Post by jeffh on Feb 23, 2023 11:58:06 GMT -5
The knurled end of the ejector rod wants to come loose. Found mine missing once after a day hiking/atv'ing. A call to CA got me all 3 last pieces in the mail in a week, FREE. I check it often now. Should put a drop of goo on it..red or blue ?
WITHOUT a really thorough degreasing (just wipe it off really well), put a small dab of BLUE Loctite on the threads. It's an easy part to heat up if you decide to remove it. I've never had to apply heat in this case, but there's just enough gooeyness this way to keep it from backing off.
For others - this is a left-hand thread.
For anyone concerned about the exposed ejector rod getting bent, I shot one for years with a bent ejector rod and never noticed until I disassembled everything and the ejector rod did not try to roll off my bench. Rather than try to fix it, I ordered a new one.
The reason the bent ejector rod is not a big issue on these guns is that the cylinder locks up at the front of the frame, NOT at the end of the ejector rod. You can't bend the part that the cylinder rotates on. The end of the ejector rod might twirl around in a wider circle when functioning, but it won't affect the function unless it's bent so badly that it drags on the underside of the barrel. When we look at the price tag, we sometimes overlook the engineering in these guns.
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Post by mk70ss on Feb 23, 2023 12:13:04 GMT -5
OH! And hang onto those grips!! The Pachmyer Compact is VERY popular for these, but I personally find them too large - antithetical to the theme of the design and too big around to get a firm grip for me. Contrary to what seems to work for everyone else, I find that the small grip allows me to really hang onto the gun, preventing it from moving within my grip and bashing my middle finger. Sure, you're pulling the trigger both back and UP without a grip filler, but it gets the axis of the bore lower too. Those "squarish" grips are t he best of the small ones, because the smooth, more rounded ones do not give you a sense of which way the muzzle is pointed, the the squarish ones do. With your grips, you get something of a radial "register" as a tactile reference in your grasp on the gun. I agree, I love the factory grips on the gun. But like all my other Charter guns with these grips, I have a BK grip adaptor (like a Tyler) coming in the mail soon. |
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