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Charter Arms Bulldog: First Range Trip
December 19, 2023
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Having hit the range for a howdy-do, I can say that the Bulldog
project is off to a promising start. Thirty rounds of Magtech's 240
grain flat point cowboy action load were fired as follows:
1) A 5^5 drill (5 shots from ready in 5 seconds into a 5" circle)
which was failed with one shot barely out of the circle. The silver
front sight was difficult to track in the bad light and glare. The
sight ramp has been painted to address this issue. My final time of
3.83 seconds showed a more difficult to correct failure to manage my
time, leading to the poor front sight tracking.
2) A variation of the L.A.P.D. Retired Officer Qualification (10
shots untimed from the draw at a BT-5 target seven yards distant). I
set a par time of 3.0 seconds and fired three shots to the chest zone
from low ready. The gun was then brought back to a compressed high
ready and pushed out for two shots in the same time limit. After
reloading, I holstered and drew to a single headshot on a 3"x5" index
card stapled to the target's face shot with the same par time. Still
on a three second par, I presented from low ready to fire three chest
shots followed by one headshot to the index card. Having learned to
read the low contrast front sight a bit better, this exercise went
better. All eight chest shots landed in the target's 10-ring and
both headshots hit the index card.
3) Five untimed single-action shots on a 6" paper plate at 15
yards, untimed. This was a ball and dummy exercise in which I
opened, spun, and closed the cylinder after every live shot fired.
Point of impact looked promising and the trigger hitch showed further
signs that it would eventually fade away.
4) A repeat of the previous exercise but using an 8.9" paper plate
25 yards distant. These shots landed low-left and I had a hunch that
the poor light and poorly contrasted front sight may have been the
issue.
5) The 5^5 had been fired on a traced DVD marking a high center
chest on a hand-drawn silhouette. The hits were marked and target
re-used on the 25 yard line to catch bullets further off point of aim
than a paper plate. I loaded the cylinder with a mix of three live
cartridges and two spent cases, spun it, and settled down to a
double-action string of fire. This 25 yard group was still a bit
low-left, but much less so, and measured 2.3" center-to-center.
6) A previous shooter had left a couple gourds on the range. I
loaded two more cartridges and smacked each gourd with one from ten
yards.
To Do: Fully bob the hammer, cook up a kydex appendix holster,
dryfire more for practice and to further wear in the trigger hitch ,
test the front sight paint and check point of impact at 25 yards
again, chronograph the cowboy load, fire one of the cowboy loads into
a line of water jugs to check rough penetration, acquire
dies/primers/powder/bullets to begin development to a moderate
handload (likely a full wadcutter if it can be made to hit to point
of aim), score some HKS speedloaders, grab some speed strips, procure
more of this promising Magtech load, purchase a pocket holster for
possible occasional jacket pocket carry. Single handed shooting,
both strong and weak hand, will also need to be investigated.
Impressions So Far: The trigger can be quite good given some more
time which is a very nice thing in such a budget gun. Recoil is
sporty but looks to be perfectly manageable in moderate time
constraints. The cut-down factory stocks are perfectly good for both
concealment and shooting. While not my favorite profile with the
chisel point, the sights seem well regulated from the factory for a
common type of load. The light weight and 2.5" barrel make for a
handy little snub despite the fat chambering. Put all that with the
very good accuracy potential and I am quite liking this silly little
belly gun.
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kimek
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gopher://sdf.org/1/users/kimek]
