Would anyone like to see a Charter Arms Bulldog Classic in .41 Special

[Captain O]

As of late, Charter's quality his greatly improved. Their Bulldog and Pitbull (in .45 ACP, .40 S&W, and 9mm Parabellum) are enjoying brisk sales. The Bulldog "Classic" is a great revolver and looks exactly like my old 1991 stainless edition. These carry a "lifetime warranty" and are habilitated to new condition should they ever break or need repair.

Naysayers harp about the auto pistols as holding more ammunition. The average civilian gunfight consists of between three and five rounds fired. An autoloader may jam, or fail to fire, while a revolver can be fired from inside a pocket and is rarely "tied up". The .40 S&W, .45 ACP, and .44 Special have a real advantage here. A larger, heavier bullet compensates for a short barrel and will likely cause more damage when it connects. (Hint: penetration is your friend). The "Bulldog" (large-bore, short barrel revolver) is a concept that has been around since the 1860's and still works today. I prefer it to a short-barreled self-loader.

The Taurus revolvers aren't trustworthy. I have heard nothing but bad about them. While Taurus may also have a "lifetime warranty" they seem to keep falling apart and having problems. Charter seems to have far fewer difficulties. Those that have had problems were quickly rectified while Taurus' revolver takes between 3-6 months to effect repairs.

People can go on and on about their "bottom feeders" but a short-barreled revolver with six healthy rounds of .45, .44 or .40 caliber goodness at a minimum of 800 fps at a range of 21 feet is effectively going to "put the hurts" on someone rather quickly. These are reliable units that deserve respect.

 

[41mag]

I prefer it to a short-barreled self-loader.

agree

had a Rossi 5 shot 44 special years ago. Lots of woods time with it before somebody talked me out of it along the way.

 

[Captain O]

I just read an 2017 article about the .41 Special where the gun writer also recommended chambering their Bulldog revolver for the .41 Special. (Hint: The .41 Special is the same length as the .38 and .44 S&W Special cartridges). Not only would this "legitimize" the .41 Special (which has been around for about 38 years).

The .41 Special would find it's way into more .41 Magnum revolvers, thus pressing them into the self-defense realm (this is an excellent cartridge for such applications (taming the lighter Mountain Guns and Scandium-frame revolvers) yielding 900 fps from a 200-grain LSWC bullet from a three-inch barrel. (Not bad, eh)?

These are "real world" applications for a "wildcat" that shouldn't be "standing in the shadows" of the .44 S&W Special. Not only would it be less punishing to shoot, but would be easier on the revolvers shooting the cartridge.

I can't see any downside except the American shooter's "Tim Allen" mantra/approach to self-defense of MORE POWER! We all know that the "point of diminishing returns" comes into play and "magnum-itis" can only go so far.

I think that we, as mature and intelligent shooters, should act like a pin. Our head should keep us from going too far. (What a concept)!

 

[Kruel J]

As of late, Charter's quality his greatly improved. Their Bulldog and Pitbull (in .45 ACP, .40 S&W, and 9mm Parabellum) are enjoying brisk sales. The Bulldog "Classic" is a great revolver and looks exactly like my old 1991 stainless edition. These carry a "lifetime warranty" and are habilitated to new condition should they ever break or need repair.

Naysayers harp about the auto pistols as holding more ammunition. The average civilian gunfight consists of between three and five rounds fired. An autoloader may jam, or fail to fire, while a revolver can be fired from inside a pocket and is rarely "tied up". The .40 S&W, .45 ACP, and .44 Special have a real advantage here. A larger, heavier bullet compensates for a short barrel and will likely cause more damage when it connects. (Hint: penetration is your friend). The "Bulldog" (large-bore, short barrel revolver) is a concept that has been around since the 1860's and still works today. I prefer it to a short-barreled self-loader.

The Taurus revolvers aren't trustworthy. I have heard nothing but bad about them. While Taurus may also have a "lifetime warranty" they seem to keep falling apart and having problems. Charter seems to have far fewer difficulties. Those that have had problems were quickly rectified while Taurus' revolver takes between 3-6 months to effect repairs.

People can go on and on about their "bottom feeders" but a short-barreled revolver with six healthy rounds of .45, .44 or .40 caliber goodness at a minimum of 800 fps at a range of 21 feet is effectively going to "put the hurts" on someone rather quickly. These are reliable units that deserve respect.

Speed is the key to penetration. Speed beats armor. Caliber is meaningless without speed in terms of it. Autoloaders have better triggers, larger capacity and reliability by today's standards is negligible with quality sample's from both sides. Autoloaders are easier to conceal (no cylinder in the way), faster and lighter in many configurations. Not all.

I can certainly appreciate your interest in the caliber, but I'm afraid it's more comparable to a wet rope and the need to alleviate lower abdomen pain after a long drive.

 

[jsparks747]

The big thing I am thinking about is since it is a bit of a wildcat round, what happens when nobody makes ammo/brass? What happens if you reload and then the brass gets too thin to use? Are you going to resize anything? Try to make your own? I would rather get a .38 Special or a .44. More ammo options and probably won't run out of ammo or brass for a while.

 

[Kruel J]

The big thing I am thinking about is since it is a bit of a wildcat round, what happens when nobody makes ammo/brass? What happens if you reload and then the brass gets too thin to use? Are you going to resize anything? Try to make your own? I would rather get a .38 Special or a .44. More ammo options and probably won't run out of ammo or brass for a while.

In a pinch I'd like the option to actually walk in and buy some, somewhere too.

 

[Captain O]

The big thing I am thinking about is since it is a bit of a wildcat round, what happens when nobody makes ammo/brass? What happens if you reload and then the brass gets too thin to use? Are you going to resize anything? Try to make your own? I would rather get a .38 Special or a .44. More ammo options and probably won't run out of ammo or brass for a while.

www.ammo-one.com is producing loaded ammunition and Starline brass is selling new .41 Special brass at $116.00 for 500 pieces.

Can I get you anything else?

 

[jsparks747]

www.ammo-one.com is producing loaded ammunition and Starline brass is selling new .41 Special brass at $116.00 for 500 pieces.

Can I get you anything else?

What happens if they stop selling it?

 

[Captain O]

What happens if they stop selling it?

Trim .41 Magnum brass by .125" (1/8"). Voila! (Hint: It is the same length as .44 S&W Special brass)! Kept within reasonable pressures, the .41 Special brass lasts and lasts. You aren't trying to shorten a magnum cartridge, but replicating Elmer Keith's old "police load".

You'll play hob trying to wear out brass.

 

[jsparks747]

Trim .41 Magnum brass by .125" 1/8". Voila!

This kinda goes back to the "what if I don't want to reload" issue. At a certain point it isn't worth trimming and loading ammo if I can buy a .38 or a .44 and go down to Bi-Mart and buy a box or 10 of ammo. Yes it can be nice and relaxing to reload, but some people like to have availability.

 

[Kruel J]

www.ammo-one.com is producing loaded ammunition and Starline brass is selling new .41 Special brass at $116.00 for 500 pieces.

Can I get you anything else?

Capt, I get you like making threads about obscure calibers and such. Frankly I find them interesting and I get your quirky sense of humor. But believe me, MOST of us here aren't going to ditch the "usual suspects" for calibers that are as common as unicorns.

Just the way it is. And the reason Charter isn't making one in .41 Special. All that tooling and setup for an audience of very few is bad business.

 

[Captain O]

Let me see... Brass in current production, loaded ammunition being produced, fits in current production .41 Magnum revolvers. In fact, Ruger and S&W are making .41 Magnum revolvers and S&W has continuously had a .41 Magnum revolver in production since 1964.

Obscure? Try again.

 

[Kruel J]

Let me see... Brass in current production, loaded ammunition being produced, fits in current production .41 Magnum revolvers. In fact, Ruger and S&W are making .41 Magnum revolvers and S&W has continuously had a .41 Magnum revolver in production since 1964.

Obscure? Try again.

Huh, but .41 Special isn't anywhere in that post. Case length notwithstanding.

I don't need to try again, you proved my point.

You don't like it when people don't agree with you huh?

 

[jsparks747]

Capt, I get you like making threads about obscure calibers and such. Frankly I find them interesting and I get your quirky sense of humor. But believe me, MOST of us here aren't going to ditch the "usual suspects" for calibers that are as common as unicorns.

Just the way it is. And the reason Charter isn't making one in .41 Special. All that tooling and setup for an audience of very few is bad business.

I hadn't even heard of .41 Special until 15 minutes ago and I stay pretty up to date!

 

[Kruel J]

I hadn't even heard of .41 Special until 15 minutes ago and I stay pretty up to date!

I had. It's pretty much a dead cartridge at this point.

 

[jsparks747]

I had. It's pretty much a dead cartridge at this point.

So like the .22 Eargesplitten Loudenboomer, the .30 Giraffe, and the 10,9,8,6mm Express? (Look them up, they are downright comical)

 

[Kruel J]

Wildcats and mass produced firearms never mix.

 

[Kruel J]

So like the .22 Eargesplitten Loudenboomer, the .30 Giraffe, and the 10,9,8,6mm Express? (Look them up, they are downright comical)

Everyone has an itch they just have to scratch.

 

[Captain O]

Elmer Keith loaded the .41 Magnum at this level in 1963 for police use. This is a shorter version of the same cartridge. The load has been around for 54 years and the cartridge itself has been around for 38 years. A known gun writer wrote about the cartridge in 2017. (It took me 20 seconds to find it on the internet).

I must be stupid.

 

[Kruel J]

Elmer Keith loaded the .41 Magnum at this level in 1963 for police use. This is a shorter version of the same cartridge. The load has been around for 54 years and the cartridge itself has been around for 38 years. A known gun writer wrote about the cartridge in 2017. (It took me 20 seconds to find it on the internet).

I must be stupid.

If you make that assumption, that is yours to carry. But again, if you ask a question on a firearm forum you have to expect answers from everyone. And from the responses thus far, the interest level for a commercially available .41 Special wheel gun seems to be entirely yours.