The Bridgeport or Stratford, stainless 3" Bulldogs are my A-number ONE, favorite revolver of all time.
I'm not much of a rimfire user, but I keep a stash just in case I find an old 6" Pathfinder in stainless someday.
I've scaled back the variety of cartridges I have to cast, hand-load and stock components for to the 357 Mag and 44 Special. No regrets either , because it's s huge relief not worrying about not having this specific primer, that particular powder, do I have enough br for?.......
HOWEVER, if there were (there wasn't) a 4", tapered-barrel, stainless, six-shot 32 Mag on the smaller frame, I'd fall all over myself coming back up to speed on 32 Mag br and dies. I have some moulds left. THAT would be the PERFECT platform for THAT cartridge, period, end of story. Yeah, I like the old Single-Sixes, but they're bigger and heavier than necessary. Please don't take offense to that, extended use/over-use/possibly abuse of Charter revolvers have permanently altered my sense of what's "enough."
The Charter 38s? Anything from Bridgeport or Stratford. I had a blued, 3" Undercover, which was one of the most handy 38s I've seen or handled in my life. It had a thread-choke you could SEE in the bore, so shooting cast was setting yourself up for a bit of work later. NO WAY anyone was going to lap that out, but it still shot well. Man, one of those in stainless?? I'd be all over that too. I'd sell that half-plastic LCR so fast,.... Love my Rugers, but seriously? It took HOW long to catch up to Charter, and they had to make it 50% bulkier and use plastic to get there? Great little (OK, NOT so little) 38, that LCR, but it's also fugly, and the Charters have very clic lines if you actually stop and look at them. OK, the older ones, at least.
My preference is for the so-called "pencil-barrels," as they are lighter, less bulky, exquisitely aesthetically pleasing to the eye,..... That was an era when they were just "put together" better overall. I absolutely do NOT care for this "full-lug" concept and the current square-edged muzzles of today's Charters. Charter revolvers have a natural beauty in their lines which is totally obscured by this "new look." YUCK! I know, less machining keeps it cost-competitive. The price we pay.
Don't get me wrong, Mr. Ecker is one cool guy. I LOVE that you can get that guy on the phone. I will continue to support him and his crew as long as I am in need of revolvers. He deserves some kind of nationally-recognized commendation for managing to supply a solid, affordable means of people of little means to protect themselves. OK, I have to stop here or I'll "get political" in recommending that if ANY industry needs to be supported by way of subsidies, it would be his.
As far as RECENT Charters, I was saving up to replace my early 90s SP101 I'd spent a bunch of time and some money getting "dialed in" and "tuned up" (longer story for later), but was open to the idea of a J-frame Smith. I was in NEED of a stainless, 3", five-shot 357 (isn't everyone?) when up pops this NEW Charter Arms 3", stainless, 357 BULLDOG! I abandoned the SP101/J-Frame search so fast it made me light-headed, but I bought this new Charter configuration as soon as I saw it. I must have done at least ONE thing right in a past life!
It came out of the box with the lightest, smoothest DA I've ever achieved myself on a Charter revolver, but it required a LOT more work than any revolver I've ever bought new, with the exception of a mid-eighties Smith 624. This one shot WAY high and leaded horribly, regardless of my efforts, and I am no spring chicken when it comes to shooting cast. Still, I couldn't give up on it and Mr.l Ecker jumped in to help as well. Let me warn others - this guy will CALL YOU to answer a question or resolve an issue! It still has a funky (but smooth) two-stage-like SA trigger, which is totally out of character for any Charter I've owned, but it's a GEM for concept and form. I'd have been happier with fixed sights, but it's closer to what I wanted than anything extant. What I wouldn't give for a TAPERED 3" stainless barrel and fixed sights on this gun!
I could go on and on about Charter. I LOVE these guns, especially the "older" ones. "JUNK," you say? Keep thinking that way., It keeps the second-hand market prices down for me, excpet no one seems to want to sell them.....? Truly innovative design (OK, it borrowed a lot from High Standard, but was then borrowed from a lot by Bill Ruger Sr. - YES, look closely at the designs and the DATES and who was doing the design.
By the way, a fellow gun-crank who goes by "Ed Buffaloe," has a vast store of data on these things and is one hell of a nice guy to boot.
If I may share a fellow Charter Fan's knowledge and experience:
unblinkingeye.com/Guns/CAR/car.htmlI may be talking to myself right now, but this is the only forum,/sub-forum I've seen dedicated to Charter Arms' revolvers. They are marvelous little guns - USER guns, not "range toys" or "target-gins," but utterly and eminently USEFUL and USABLE guns and I just love the crap out of them. Everything else I've owned in the same caliber has seemed unnecessarily bulky and heavy - even my beloved stainless Service Six.