Back in the 1970s, Charter Arms introduced the five shot Bulldog, a compact revolver chambered in .44 Special with a 3 inch barrel. It was never going to win any beauty contests. Charter Arms had already earned a reputation by producing inexpensive working guns like the Undercover .38 Special. They were revolvers for people who wanted reliability without paying Smith & Wesson or Colt prices. They were the blue collar guns of the revolver world.
A friend of mine bought just about every firearm that caught his eye, and one day he showed up with a Bulldog. He bragged endlessly that the revolver was almost impossible to miss with.
Naturally, I figured he was full of it.
Then he handed it to me at the range.
I’ll be damned.
That little Bulldog was one of the easiest revolvers I have ever fired. The sights came up naturally, the recoil was surprisingly manageable for a .44 Special, and the bullets landed exactly where I expected them to. My groups were consistently tighter than what I normally shot with a Smith & Wesson five shot J frame or a Colt Detective Special. Somehow, that plain little revolver simply fit me.
Every shooter eventually discovers that one gun that seems to do all the work for him. For me, the Bulldog was one of those guns.
There is also an interesting piece of history attached to it.
When Sara Jane Moore attempted to assassinate President Gerald Ford in San Francisco in 1975, the Charter Arms Bulldog she owned had previously been confiscated by the San Francisco Police Department. Instead, she fired at Ford with a Smith & Wesson revolver and missed. Moore later said she wished she had still had her Bulldog because she believed she would not have missed.
I’ve always had an affection for 3 inch barrel revolvers, and I own several of them. The Charter Arms Bulldog remains one of my favorites because it never let me down. It was reliable, accurate, and far better than its modest price tag suggested.
Now don’t misunderstand me. I’m still a gun snob.
These days I generally carry handguns that cost considerably more than the Bulldog. They have prettier finishes, smoother actions, and prestigious names stamped on the side.
But every now and then, it’s healthy to remember a simple truth.
Price and prestige don’t always buy better shooting.
Sometimes the plain looking working man’s revolver quietly humiliates the expensive thoroughbreds.
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