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The Bulldog Classic is Charter Arms’ most iconic revolver. Consider this review as getting reacquainted with the compact, 5-shot revolver chambered in 44 Special. It’s a small gun with a big personality. I have run several Charter Arms revolvers over the years and I always find myself coming back to the Bulldog. This latest variant of the Bulldog is the nicest looking and it performs.
Table of contents
Charter Arms Bulldog Pedigree
The Bulldog has been popular since it was introduced in 1973 because of its compact size and 44 Special caliber. Back in the 1970s, a 38 Special revolver was the norm for concealed carry and the 44 Special delivers almost twice as much muzzle energy than the 38 Special.
There are a few unique features about the Charter Arms Bulldog Classic and, in fact, the entire Bulldog pedigree line. One feature is the one-piece frame. Smith & Wesson, Taurus, Rossi, and Colt all use a two-piece frame that incorporates a side plate that holds the guts of the internal mechanism in place. Charter Arms Bulldog guns use the trigger guard to hold the internals in place.
The second unique feature Charter Arms used was a frame-mounted firing pin. The blow from the hammer hits a transfer bar which hits the firing pin to fire the round. The transfer bar system makes the Bulldog very safe. Back in the 1970’s and ‘80s other revolver manufacturers used a hammer-mounted firing pin.
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Origin Of The Bulldog Name
The name Bulldog originated in the late 1860s. Webley in England is credited with first using the name for their British Bull Dog revolver which was a small, compact .44 caliber revolver featuring a 2.5-inch barrel and 5-shot cylinder. It wasn’t a stretch for Charter Arms to name their compact, 5-shot, 44 Special revolver the same.
Features
The Bulldog Classic looks 1970’s old-school with the tapered 3-inch barrel, exposed ejector rod, blued finish, and checkered laminate wood grips. The bright blue finish was nicely executed. The best bluing I’ve seen on a Charter Arms revolver. The hammer is case colored and contrasts nicely. The trigger and trigger guard are a matte black color. The Bulldog has that retro double-action revolver look to it.
In hand, the Charter Arms Bulldog is as lightweight as similar-sized 38 Special revolvers except the cylinder is fatter on the Bulldog to accommodate five 44 Special cartridges. Unloaded the Bulldog weighs 20 ounces. The laminated wood grip shape is just large enough to fill your hand yet small enough to conceal. The sides of the grips are checkered.
Trigger
It features a double-action/single-action trigger. The pull weight in double action was 12 pounds; single action was 4.8 pounds. The trigger face is smooth and the action itself was fairly smooth, so the 12-pound DA press felt lighter. In my experience, some Charter Arms actions feel gritty until they are broken in. There was a slight amount of stacking in DA, but the trigger can be staged—pulled back in DA mode and held by the trigger finger then pulled the rest of the way through to fire the revolver. Staging the trigger in DA can make the final bit of trigger pull feel like you are shooting in SA mode.
Cylinder
To open the cylinder, press the serrated cylinder latch forward or pull forward on the ejector rod. The crane locks into the frame. Ruger used this design detail in the LCR. Most other revolvers mate the crane to frame.
Sight
The ramp front sight is internal to the barrel and the rear sight is a groove machined into the top strap. These are rudimentary sights at best and very usable in close-up, defensive situations. This is not a target pistol by any means.
Barrel
The 3-inch long barrel offers a bit more sight radius and ekes out a bit more velocity and energy compared to the typical 2.5-inch snub nose revolver. The longer barrel also allows for a longer ejector rod to easily kick out spent shells, yet is still easy to conceal.
38 Special Vs 44 Special: Which Is Better?
The 44 Special caliber makes the Bulldog unique among small, compact revolvers which are typically chambered in 38 Special or 357 Magnum. So you might ask yourself: Is the 44 Special special?
Looking at the data 44 Special Hornady Custom with a 180-grain FTX bullet had a muzzle velocity/energy of 790 fps/249 ft-lb. Buffalo Bore’s Anti-Personal 44 Special cartridge loaded with a 200 grain hard cast wadcutter bullet generates 979 fps and that translates to 425 ft-lb of energy. Wadcutters are shaped like soup cans. They have no point or give. These bullets are typically used by target shooters, and at close range, like in a defensive situation, the bullet is very accurate, and flat nose hits with force and penetrates. It makes holes in the target like a hole punch.
Looking at data out of a Rossi RP63 with a 3-inch barrel 38 Special Speer Gold Dot with a 125-grain GDHP bullet has a muzzle velocity/energy was 815 fps/184 ft-lb. Aguila 357 Magnum with a 158-grain semi-jacketed HP produced a muzzle velocity/energy of 1115 fps/436 ft-lb.
Running The Charter Arms Bulldog In 44 Special
The Bulldog has enough real estate on the grip that felt recoil is spread into the palm of your hand. It is not concentrated so recoil feels lighter, and much softer shooting than a 357 Magnum J-frame or similar-sized revolvers. The exception is the hot Buffalo Bore Anti-Personnel loads. You don’t want to shoot a box of these at one time. The Bulldog Classic also feels surprisingly small and compact in hand. It is hard to believe it holds five, fat 44 Special cartridges.
Groups at 10 YD
To collect accurate data I fired in single-action using a rest at 10 yards. Five-shot groups averaged from 1.3 to 2.3 inches, which is good for a revolver meant for use at spitting distances. The Bulldog had no taste for the Hornady Custom 180-grain rounds, my best 5-shot groups measured 2.04 inches. The Bulldog seemed to prefer 200-grain loads. The best group with the 200-grain SIG ammo measured 1.1 inches. The Buffalo Bore 200-grain anti-personnel wad cutter was 1.4 inches.
Groups at 7 Yds
At close range is really where the rubber meets the road with the Bulldog Classic. I moved the target to 7 yards and shot a modified Bill Drill. Grasping the Bulldog high on the grip to better manage muzzle flip firing for speed, I was able to consistently keep shots in the 8-inch circle firing DA. My group sizes were about 2 to 3 inches on average. I admit the Buffalo Bore took control to fire fast. Recoil was not pleasant. It pounded my palm like a Bull-Dawg! Of course, the target got the worst of it. With the Hornady and SIG, recoil was very manageable. Emptied ejected fast but I did get a few cases hung up on the grip, but gravity provided an assist.
Read More: Colt Python Review: 2.5 Inch Snub-Nose Classic
Final Thoughts
If you want a classic compact revolver in a unique caliber the Charter Arms Bulldog can fill that desire. Bulldog revolvers are also affordable. I’ve carried Bulldogs off and on for years and I have never felt undergunned. I consider snub-nose revolvers as a “get away” gun, allowing me to fire at close range and get the hell out of Dodge to safety. You either like revolvers or you don’t. All you revolver xenophobes can leave a comment below. I’m going to conceal carry this new Bulldog in 44 Special for a while or at least until peer pressure shames me back to a striker-fire 9mm.
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Robert A. Sadowski is an American writer and journalist.
He has written about firearms and 2A issues for decades, and has trained with some of the country’s finest firearm instructors in handguns, rifles/carbines, shotguns and long-range shooting. He has also had the opportunity to interview numerous individuals deeply involved in protecting our 2nd Amendment.
He a is a frequent contributor to numerous gun-enthusiast publications, a few of which include:
- TheArmorylife.com
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Sadowski is also the author of numerous gun books, including: “9MM — Guide to America’s Most Popular Caliber” and “Book Of Glock,” both of which were #1 new releases on Amazon. He also wrote the popular DIY gun book series: Shooter’s Bible Guide to Firearms Assembly, Disassembly, and Cleaning Volume 1 and Volume 2. Other gun books authored by Sadowski include “50 Guns That Changed the World,” and edited “The M16A1 Rifle: Operation and Preventive Maintenance”originally published by the U.S. Department of the Army. He also edits the annual “Gun Trader’s Guide” to firearm values.
Sadowski is also the Treasurer/Secretary of the GLOCK Collectors Association, a non-profit organization with the mission to educate and preserve: Educate the public on the models, variations, and commemoratives built by GLOCK, as well as provide members with information on GLOCK serial numbers, importation, and other facts unique to GLOCK pistols.
Nice review.
The last picture of the grips that you posted is a very important point for people to consider: cases do indeed get hung up with Charter Bulldogs. Speed loaders also do not align properly. It’s not only with the Classic Bulldog Grips, as illustrated, but also the “Combat grips” Charter usually fits, as well as aftermarket grips such as the “Checkered Rosewood Small Grips,” made for Charter by Premium Gun Grips.
The issue is that the frame of a Charter Bulldog is very small relative to its caliber, so there is minimal space between the rear of the grip frame and cylinder breech. As a result, case ejection is not ideal at all, and speed loader usage is impractical, with all of the grips that Charter offers.
The good news is that the user can modify the rosewood grips relatively easily to eliminate this issue. The rosewood chisels away and can be cut seamlessly, without destroying the grip or ruining the looks. The rubber “Combat” grips would probably be more difficult to mod, at least in terms of preserving looks.
I hate the garish “Bulldog” on the barrel, so I guess I will just stay with my old Bulldog I got in the seventies. The CCI aluminum cased 44spl hollowpoints made it lighter to carry and Pachmayr grips let it stay on target if you need a second shot.
The “Son of Sam” approves of this article! 😀
I have an early Bulldog that I used to carry in place of my S&W M-36 2”. I carried early Speer 200 gr. Gold Dots with a huge hollow point, reminiscent of the old .45 ACP Flying Ashtrays. This was prior to Ballistic Gelatin so my medium was milk jugs with an old pair of jeans thrown over them. Surprisingly, results weren’t spectacular, but the only thing I had better was Speer 225 gr. Half Jacketed Hollow Points over 7.0 gr. of Unique. Now, that was spectacular. I still carried the Gold Dots figuring to rely on accuracy, which was very good and right to the sights.
I had a friend give me a couple hundred 185 gr. medium hard cast wad cutters. I loaded these over 5.5 gr. Of Tite Group. Talk about a surprise, these blew up two jugs of water and passed through the third. I believe if I ever take it for a walk again, these will be along for the ride.
44 Bulldog is a better self-defense handgun than many would think. Long before modern bullets were developed, a big slow-moving slug that would penetrate deeply was the best option. Big slugs still work today. But – Would like a 3″ SS model with adjustable sights. Note that the 5 shot TAURUS 44 Tracker uses the same HKS speed loaders as the Bulldog and serves as a viable alternate. Tracker is much heavier though.
That bulldog was the issue gun for theFederal Air Marshalls; the most powerful easiest round to shoot with the least probability of penetrating the pressureised aircraft while inflight.
Tombstone graveyard epitaph . . .
“Here lies Lester Moore, four slugs from a 44, no less, no more”.
Never give in to peer pressure! Lol
I bought my Charter Arms Bulldog .44 Spl in 1976. My wife uses it as her road trip gun. It just plain works
I was knocking around in a pawn shop back in the 70’s looking for a cheap CCW pocket revolver and the guy showed me a pristine Bull Dog that the original owner pawned and never picked up. He said the guy couldn’t handle it, and that’s the reason he dumped it. The fit and finish on that 70’s Charter Arms was excellent for it’s price range. Far better than later model CA’s.
I developed a slightly hotter than factory load using a 200gr wad cutter but I drilled a hole about 3/4 way through it, mainly to reduce bullet weight and chamber pressure a little, and obviously make a bigger hole. It took some experimenting with the hole diameter, but I finally settle on a hole that caused it to mushroom to about the size of a quarter in wet newspaper. We didn’t have gel back then. It was impressive! There wasn’t a very good selection of .429’s hollow point projectiles back then except for the .44 mag and .444 Marlin that required higher velocities to mushroom, so we ‘rolled our own’. I think Hornady made a 210gr JHP back then but I never could get it to open up and the lower .44sc velocities.
That round was a blast shooting water jugs and other exploding items, like rotten watermelons and cantaloupes! I even used that load while carrying CCW but that was back before lawyers sacred the $#it out of us about using hand loads in a self defense gun. Sadly, the factory .44sc ammo sucked back then, so I sold that little jewel. Bummer – wish I still had it!
It’s good to see modern ammo tech is reviving this outstanding self defense round. I would LOVE to see S&W build a J frame 5 shot .44 special. I’d buy one!
I carried a original Charter Bulldog as a backup and off duty gun to my S&W Model 66 duty gun. It is one gun I will never get rid of, back in the day I carried Glaser Safety slugs in it, they seem to have fallen out of favor though. I carried it in a thumbsnap pancake holster and still do to this day. I also carried 2 HKS speedloaders in my pocket.
When I married in 1969 I was working my way through college on the GI Bill and working nights on a city police department. Money was tight but a Charter Arms Undercover .38 provided an off duty carry for me and a house gun for my wife.
The PD issued the then newest, hottest duty ammunition available, .38 Special and .357 magnum Super Vel, depending on what we carried. Our police chief was generous and issued me some of both.
We lived in a rental that was just outside the city limits with a forty acre field behind it. My wife had taken well to shooting and sometimes practiced with the Charter while I was attending classes. One day I came home to be informed that she had lost the front sight from the Charter. It came off while shooting and couldn’t be found in the grass. The sight had been silver soldered to the barrel. Not at all sensitive to recoil, my 105 pound wife was half way through a second box of Super Vels when the sight came off.
I sent the revolver to Charter. Their warranty was excellent. They replaced the sight, tightened things up and returned the little revolver with a letter advising that the use of “very high pressure loads” should be restricted to actual defensive use and lighter loads should be used for practice. I gave the letter to my wife.
Today my wife’s carry gun is a compact 9mm, but her little Charter remains in her collection.
I too had an original Bulldog, back in the (in)famous Son of Sam days. I carried it and reloaded for it. It was always ready to go. I even worked up wax bullet loads for indoors. That was one nice revolver, and I’m glad to see that it’s made a comeback. Nice review.
Was their a variant with a 2″magnaported barrel in 1980
I picked up a Charter Bulldog years ago when they were made in Stratford Ct. I have large hands so a set of Pachmeyers were added. They are keepers, and have made the short list of guns you never get rid of.
I’m using a Bulldog Classic as my EDC right now. My carry load is the old reliable Federal 200 gr. SWC-HP, backed up with 5 more in a QuickStrip. I pack it in a Galco FLETC OWB holster.
Great writeup Bob. Been looking at getting a classic Bulldog to run some rounds through.
I agree with you. I also carry a revolver at times and have never felt uncomfortable about that. But when not carrying a revolver I have my Colt 1911 45.
LOOK I AM GOING TO PUT IT PLAN AND SIPLE I A GUN FIGHT / SELF DEFENCE FIGHT FOR LIFE THE FBI SYSTISTICAL DATA SAYS BETWEEN ONE AND TWO SHOTS FIRED… THAT SAID AND TO BE FACT IF YOU NEED MORE YOU NEED A RIFE NOT A HAND GUN LET THAT SINK IN PEOPLE CUZ THAT BE THE FACTS
Why are you SCREAMING?
OLD dudes on gun sites think it is attention getting and authoritative to type in caps. Quite the opposite.
I think you’re right Griffy, but I’m an OLD dude, and even I know better! Okay ‘NYGHTMYST’, now you know – NO SCREAMING ALLOWED! Anyway, we’re just busting your balls man, ROCK ON! 😎
From another Old Fart- reading glasses are not required with ALL CAPS.
🤔🙊🙈🙉 Okay … I understand. 😂