Charter Arms 45 Colt loads

[Mathias]

How hot of a load can a charter arms bulldog, 45 colt handle safely? No stupid comments please.

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[Alexx1401]

How hot of a load can a charter arms bulldog, 45 colt handle safely? No stupid comments please.

This is of course going to depend on how long you wish the gun to last. If you pound it good it will shorten it's life. I take it you have one? If so I mean take a realistic look at what it is in size and weight. They make some great defensive loads in this caliber and of course the stuff is quite expensive since so little is made. You are not going to blow the gun matching what this stuff does and I doubt many are going to want to shoot this gun for "fun" even rolling their own. So roll some with your favorite slug at what the better factory loads list. You will not break the gun but you do have to have realistic expectations of how long it will last if you want to shoot much "warm" ammo.
Now if you mean can you make ammo for it like some do for the Ruger S/A 45 Colt's, where they come close to matching .44 mag ammo? Then in that case yes you "could" but, you would have to expect to manage to break something on the poor gun in short order.

 

[Mathias]

This is of course going to depend on how long you wish the gun to last. If you pound it good it will shorten it's life. I take it you have one? If so I mean take a realistic look at what it is in size and weight. They make some great defensive loads in this caliber and of course the stuff is quite expensive since so little is made. You are not going to blow the gun matching what this stuff does and I doubt many are going to want to shoot this gun for "fun" even rolling their own. So roll some with your favorite slug at what the better factory loads list. You will not break the gun but you do have to have realistic expectations of how long it will last if you want to shoot much "warm" ammo.
Now if you mean can you make ammo for it like some do for the Ruger S/A 45 Colt's, where they come close to matching .44 mag ammo? Then in that case yes you "could" but, you would have to expect to manage to break something on the poor gun in short order.

Thank you. Using the gun for selfdefense, more or less a house gun.Carry at times. Want loads enough to stop an attack but not blow up the firearm. Thank you again.

 

[DLS]

I'd choose a heavy bullet loaded about two third up from the bottom listing in a reliable reloading manual. This should get you adequate velocity and not be too hard on the gun or you.

Shooting a revolver indoors brings about some interesting elements regarding blast as you have the cylinder gap as well as the muzzle. Too hot a load and you will be challenged to get a second shot off accurately, especially if you touch of the first one in a hallway with a celling and two walls a foot and a half from your ears bouncing the blast right back at you.

 

[Alexx1401]

Thank you. Using the gun for selfdefense, more or less a house gun.Carry at times. Want loads enough to stop an attack but not blow up the firearm. Thank you again.

For a close in wheel gun, this would be a dandy gun. Have you shot it? If it was me I would look for some lighter slugs since recoil is going to be stout. If you roll your own I would go with something like this. Several makers offer ammo for this that is aimed at defense, in the 200gr area. Be a little easier to shoot well and still make a dandy round. Lot of it is in the buck a round range but find one you like and you can of course roll it at a lot less.

 

[DLS]

While lighter bullets create less recoil, due to the higher velocity they cause a much "sharper" recoil pulse. This makes second round accuracy an issue. This is why ICORE and other speed oriented handgun game shooters tend toward the heavier bullets. The longer recoil pulse a heavier bullet creates is perceived by the shooter as softer and allows getting back on target faster. A slower but heavy bullet that dumps its entire energy in the target has much to be desired in a self-defense round.

 

[Alexx1401]

While lighter bullets create less recoil, due to the higher velocity they cause a much "sharper" recoil pulse. This makes second round accuracy an issue. This is why ICORE and other speed oriented handgun game shooters tend toward the heavier bullets. The longer recoil pulse a heavier bullet creates is perceived by the shooter as softer and allows getting back on target faster. A slower but heavy bullet that dumps its entire energy in the target has much to be desired in a self-defense round.

Maybe just me then. Back before they started making some nice auto's in the compact area I had several large bore, 5 shooters. Was never a wheel gun guy but was not big on 5 shot 38's and the 5 shot .357's were too damn hard for me to learn to hit with. Ended up with a few of the old Charter alloy .44's. I of course had to start rolling my own as there was almost nothing available in that round in those days except the standard heavy RNL and we common folk could not order ammo. I played around and ended up with some loads using much lighter slugs for myself and the Wife who also ended up with one of these. We both could shoot far better with the lighter slugs. So we may just have been the odd man out so to speak. When some nice autos that actually worked started to become common I sold those old Charters. Often wish I would have kept at least one of them. They were for their time a great little gun for when I did not want to carry my favorite, which has always been a GM .45

 

[Mathias]

While lighter bullets create less recoil, due to the higher velocity they cause a much "sharper" recoil pulse. This makes second round accuracy an issue. This is why ICORE and other speed oriented handgun game shooters tend toward the heavier bullets. The longer recoil pulse a heavier bullet creates is perceived by the shooter as softer and allows getting back on target faster. A slower but heavy bullet that dumps its entire energy in the target has much to be desired in a self-defense round.

This seems to be the consenses. Will go with this advice. Thanks all.

 

[Hop Sing]

I'll add that if you roll your own, make sure the bullets are well seated in the cases. Fairly hot loads in a light gun bring interia into play and the bullets themselves can tend to walk out of the cases by the third round or so.

 

[Ruger Rich]

This is of course going to depend on how long you wish the gun to last. If you pound it good it will shorten it's life. I take it you have one? If so I mean take a realistic look at what it is in size and weight. They make some great defensive loads in this caliber and of course the stuff is quite expensive since so little is made. You are not going to blow the gun matching what this stuff does and I doubt many are going to want to shoot this gun for "fun" even rolling their own. So roll some with your favorite slug at what the better factory loads list. You will not break the gun but you do have to have realistic expectations of how long it will last if you want to shoot much "warm" ammo.
Now if you mean can you make ammo for it like some do for the Ruger S/A 45 Colt's, where they come close to matching .44 mag ammo? Then in that case yes you "could" but, you would have to expect to manage to break something on the poor gun in short order.

Real good answer.