My friend Keith, over at the Gunday Brunch podcast, once said, “I don’t believe in stopping power, but when I load a 250 grain .45 Colt into a revolver, I almost believe it.” I can certainly understand what he’s saying. My gun isn’t a .45 Colt, but a .44 Special. It’s a gun appropriately named the Bulldog, produced by Charter Arms. Revolver lovers and true crime fans instantly know what I’m talking about.
Who is Charter Arms?
As a company, Charter Arms has two distinct phases: pre-92 and post-92. That was when the company switched ownership. Guns from the pre-92 period are often considered quite nice and well-made. Guns from the post-92 period have suffered from some quality control issues.
The original Charter Arms went bankrupt in 1992. A new owner named the company Charco and continued producing revolvers. That company went bankrupt in 1996, and again the company was purchased. The company and rights were purchased by another group, who renamed it Charter 2000, and they’ve owned it ever since.
A man named Douglas McClenahan began Charter Arms in 1964 after working for Colt, High Standard, and Ruger. His first gun was fairly standard in many ways but revolutionary in others.
It was a simple snub nose .38 Special five-shot gun designed for concealed carry or as a backup gun. It wore the moniker “The Undercover.” What made The Undercover different was the frame design. He used a one-piece frame that made the revolver stronger all around. One of his most notable contributions was the transfer bar — his safety device prevents the hammer from firing the gun unless the trigger is pulled. It’s now a standard safety device used on almost all modern production revolvers.
Charter Arms expanded to produce a ton of different revolvers, including their most famous and arguably most popular, the Bulldog, in .44 Special. My Bulldog is an original Charter Arms.
Bulldog — What’s In a Name?
The Bulldog has always been Charter Arms’ most popular revolver. The name comes from an old tradition of naming compact, big bore revolvers Bulldog. Webley did it first, followed by Frontier Bulldogs, American Bulldogs, and Western Bulldogs. It’s kind of like using K to describe shorter versions of SMGs. It just stuck.
The Charter Arms Bulldog uses a compact frame and cylinder. It traditionally fires .44 Special, although other Bulldogs have existed in other calibers. The gun holds five rounds of the big cartridge. Barrel lengths vary from 2.2 inches to 4.2 inches. The traditional Bulldog, like mine, has a three-inch barrel.
This big gun was quite a success for Charter Arms after its introduction in 1973. This was an era where defensive calibers started with 4, or at least most people preferred they did. Compact revolvers often came in .38 Special or maybe .357 Magnum. The .44 Special was something a little different and a little bigger.
The gun itself was no J frame, but it wasn’t a Colt Trooper, either. Plus, these guns were fairly affordable, and the one-piece frame design ensured they were tough enough to take the abuse the .44 Special offered compact revolvers. It was popular enough to be one of the highest-selling guns of the 1980s, according to Guns and Hunting. By the mid-80s, half a million had been produced and sold.
The Bulldog became quite infamous as it was the gun of choice used by David Berkowitz, the Son of Sam killer.
The Famed .44 Special
The .44 Special is a bit of an interesting cartridge. It was designed in 1907 and is largely based on the older .44 Russian round. The .44 Russian was quite popular and well-known for its accuracy and for its combination of power and controllability. S&W developed the cartridge for their brand new New Century Revolver, aka the Triple Lock. Unlike the .44 Russian, the .44 Special used smokeless powder.
They wanted to build on that .44 Russian reputation and did so quite well. The gun-buying public received the cartridge well. It was just as accurate as the .44 Russian. Famed gun writers like Elmer Keith and Skeeter Skelton were big fans of the .44 Special. They eventually formed an unofficial group called the .44 Associates.
They experimented and loaded the round hotter and hotter, and eventually, they turned these hot loads into the .44 Magnum. Eventually, the .44 Special faded as the .45 ACP became so popular.
At the Range
How does the Charter Arms Bulldog perform at the range? Quite admirably. The biggest problem I have with shooting the gun is the expensive ammo. Holy crap, are they proud of .44 Special. After suffering through sticker shock from the ammo, I enjoyed myself at the range.
The stout power of the .44 Special is evident in the recoil department. Does it hurt? No, not quite, but if you are used to nothing but 9mm, then the .44 Special might surprise you. It’s not bad, though. You can certainly fire fast follow-up shots with a modern shooting stance and two-handed grip.
I like the recoil, to be honest. 9mm semi-auto becomes machine-like. I know what to expect every time I pull the trigger, but with the Bulldog, things are a little different and I enjoy it differently. I practiced placing two shots on target from the low ready in under 1.5 seconds and found it perfectly achievable.
The Bulldog hits where you point it. The double-action trigger is fantastic and surprisingly smooth. The single action is quite crisp and enjoyable and makes shooting those range shots easy. The front sight is big and pronounced, and the rear sight is really just a trench in the top strap. Functional, but not fancy.
The Bulldog is a compact frame, and sadly I don’t have a speed loader to master faster reloads, but it doesn’t seem difficult to do. Opening the cylinder and ejecting empties can be done in a flash. The full-length ejection rod makes pushing out the stubby little rounds easy.
It’s fun to shoot, and I can see the appeal of the big-bore revolver in a defensive role. Federal even makes some .44 Special punch loads that seem mighty interesting.
Is the Charter Arms Bulldog valid today?
Sure, why not? Sure, it’s a bit big and heavy compared to, say, a P365, but it could still be fine for concealed carry. It’s not fancy, but it’s capable of putting a bad guy down. If you lived in a more rural area, then the Bulldog could make short work of both bad guys and creatures like feral hogs.
It packs more punch than most and is still convenient to carry.
