Buffalo Bore on Charter Bulldogs

M

Model12Win

Moderator
Hello guys!

As you may know, I have recently bought a Charter Arms Bulldog .44 special. I got one made in February of this year, so it's brand new. It works great, and I really like the gun so far. I plan on using it as a carry gun and for secondary home defense as well.

That being said, I was in the market for an effective carry load. I kept hearing about the Blazer 200 grain Gold Dot and how it was a good load for the Bulldog, but I also came across Buffalo Bore's line of .44 special ammo. Now I've always heard that the Charter Bulldogs were not meant for hot loads, but I found a particular load that sounded like it would be a real winner IF it was safe to use in my Bulldog. Here is the load from Buffalo Bore that I'm referring to:

https://www.buffalobore.com/index.php?l=product_detail&p=271

It's a 190 grain soft-cast lead semi-wadcutter hollow point advertised at 1005 FPS from a 2" barreled test gun they fired it from. Should get at least that from the Bulldog's 2.5" barrel. But, they had a disclaimer of sorts in the product description:

This ammunition is for use in ALL 44 SPL and 44 MAG. firearms except the Charter Arms Bull Dog. No, this ammo won't blow up your Bull Dog, but if you shoot more than a few hundred rounds of this ammo in a Bull Dog, the gun will get looser than it already was, will go out of "time" and stop working.
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Needless to say, I rather quickly stopped considering this load for carry, after all I didn't want to damage my new Bulldog. But, before giving up hope completely, I figured I would message Buffalo Bore to see if they could elaborate on the matter of using this .44 special load in a Charter Arms Bulldog. This is the message I sent them:

Name: Dillon
Subject: .44 special quesiton
Message: Hello, I am wondering if it would be safe to fire about one box of your 14C/20 in a Charter Arms Bulldog, and then use it as a carry load. I would not fire it but 20 times with the ammo to check point of aim. In the description for the 190 grain LHP .44 special it says it won't blow up a bulldog but could make the gun go out of time by firing a few 100 rounds. I'd only be shooting one 20 round box, like I said, but would really like to use this as a carry load as it looks very effective. Would this be unreasonable or unwise? Thanks so much for your time!

Time Stamp: 03/22/2015 10:53am
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As you might notice, I sent this just this morning, and got a reply shortly thereafter. Here it is straight from Buffalo Bore themselves:

Hi Dillon,

The current Bull Dogs/Charter Arms revolvers are much better built than older ones, so while we have not tested the new ones, we’d say if you know you have a Charter built in the last 7-10 years, yes you can at least shoot a limited amount of any of our 44 SPL loads in it.

Best Regards,
Wayne Brown
Buffalo Bore Ammo
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So there you have it. According to Buffalo Bore, it is in fact safe to fire limited amounts of their .44 special ammo in a Charter Arms Bulldog of recent manufacture. I intend to grab a couple boxes of the mentioned 190 grain LSWCHP load to test fire in my gun, and if everything checks out, it will be my carry load. It's generating some impressive numbers, and with that big soft cast hollow point I bet it gets excellent expansion at the 1000 FPS+ it should get from the 2.5" barrel on my gun. Naturally, as the company has stated, this isn't a load one should fire hundreds of times in their Bulldog, but it won't harm the gun for occasional use.

I just figured I'd let you guys know about this, in case you have a .44 Bulldog that you'd like some nice and effective ammo for. Remember, like Buffalo Bore said, you want to be sure you have a Bulldog that isn't more than 10 years or so old and is obviously in good mechanical condition. If so, this might broaden your horizons for carry ammo.

Regards,

M12Win. :cool:
 
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Good info and, I can't resist a corny joke: straight from the Buffalo's mouth.

I carry Buffalo Bore's 200 gr Hard Cast Wadcutters as a defense round in my Taurus. I have no worries that the high loads will cause any problems in the Taurus because I will not shoot hundreds of Buffalo Bores through it. They are too expensive.
 
Speer 200 gr. 44 Special or Hornady 180 gr. 44 Special, or Hornady Critical Defense 165 gr JHP. My choice would be the Speer 200 gr. I like heavy loads.
 
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I would be interested in what Charter Arms has to say about this. From all accounts I've read, they are very responsive to customer's concerns.

Maybe you should contact them with the responses you received from BB and see what they have to say about the whole thing. Perhaps they have extra insight into the whole thing. Who knows, perhaps the new guns are not rated for a high powered load and you could void your lifetime warranty using them. Or, perhaps they are built stronger in recent years and you have nothing to fear.

I mean, right now you are going by what an ammunition manufacturer is saying about a firearm they do not produce and apparently haven't tested in recent years. Wouldn't it be safer to get it from the horse's mouth instead of the buffalo's?

Just a thought
 
I'm not interested in trying to make my compact 44 specials into 44 magnums, I already have a 44 magnum for that.
 
I understand the Blazer 200 grain Gold Dots won't expand from a 2.5" Bulldog barrel. This sucks, and is one of the reasons why I was looking for higher power options.
 
Underwood makes a 200 gr.gold dot load called " Bulldog" rated at 950 fps out of the 2.5" Bulldog barrel if you can find any.
 
yes it will shoot loose

I can attest that it is possible to shoot a BullDog loose. I bought one of the early 3" plain jane models when they first came on the market. Carried and shot it quite a bit, it had fair sights and was suprisingly accurate. I bought a quantity of 250 gr Keith bullets, and started loading for it. And of course in youthful enthusiasm, the loads were a tad stiff, (no records from those foolish days, but 6.5 grs of Unique seems right) , certainly exceeded factory velocity and energy.

Gun went out of time and I had to part with it.
 
If you wanted 44 Mag performance, why did you buy a 44 Special? There's lots of 44 Mags out there that would handle any "hot" 44 Special ammo you want. I'd stick to regular ammo with your revolver.
 
There are more than a few professionals who recommend practicing and plinking with lighter loads than will be carried even if the gun is capable of a steady diet of max loads. Living with the .357/.38 Special ultralight snubbies come to mind.
 
I have an old Bulldog from around 1975 that was my dad's nightstand gun. I havn't fired it since the mid 80's and even then the 44spl loads were pretty light. If memory serves it had pretty stout recoil.

it's unlikely the gun will be fired anytime soon, it is plenty happy sitting in the safe. I take it out from time to time to clean/oil and just remember the old man.

I know nothing of the quality of the newer variant of Bulldogs, but the old ones seem well built if not feature packed like similar aged Colt's, Smith's etc...
 
A soft cast HP of any calibre or weight is kind of daft. A cast bullet will expand anyway. A 148 LWC target load will flatten to about 60 calibre out of a .38 Special.
Anyway, the boss in the gun shop I worked in long ago had a Bulldog. Worked up a 265 grain load at one point. No idea what load. Cracked the grips, but did nothing else. So a 190 isn't going to either.
"...CA Bulldog is a very light gun..." Yep. 19 ounce hand cannon.
 
Thanks gang!

Well at the gun show here in town today I snagged a box of Winchester 200 grain .44 special Silvertip hollow points. Here they are:

20150328_132411.jpg


I've heard of these loads and of people using them in Bulldogs, not sure how the performance is though. They sure look like nasty little things though!
 
if you look close enough you will see a considerable difference in the wall thickness between chambers as well as the outer cylinder wall. you might notice the top strap is a little thinner on the Bulldogs too.

I do not know what the proof load is for the Bulldogs before they leave the factory... but I can tell you I want no part of a hot .44 special when fired from these guns.



 
Thanks, Jerry.

The cylinder walls are indeed thin on this gun. I'm going to get me some Bull Dog loads for it from Underwood ammunition company.
 
the bulldog will not give you enough velocity to expand the silver tip, but it is a very accurate and consistent round that will hit where you shoot and it will make a big .44 hole in what it hits.
I jug tested a 200 gr. silver tip out of my 3" Rossi, it punched through to the 5th gallon jug with no expansion;


However in the silver tips defense at 25 yards I can cover all 5 shots with my fist.
 
I should add, that the more you shoot and like your bulldog, the more likely you will end up cursing it unless you have spare money laying around.

unlike a S&W, the charter arms revolvers are tricky to time, or at least tricky to replace the hand. next, cylinder end shake can be common, yet there is no information on how to fix this outside the factory.

now, if you buy the newest version of the charter arms guns they say they will fix them for free, minus shipping of course. the original Bridgeport and Stratford made guns are considered inferior by the company so they charge you for the fixes..
 
Yeah, well Charter couldn't get the timing right on my Bulldog, made NIB Feb 2015. Brand new gun, 0 quality control though.

Oh well, they get to fix it on their own dime. Too bad Ruger or S&W can't make a small .44 like this. I'm sure they'd do a better job at it.
 
These were tested way back in 83 when this gun came out by a good friend who was the ballistic technician for the Indiana state police. I used to give him guns I would purchase and new ammo to test and he would give me a report and some fired bullets.
These were fired through a jean jacket material into a water tank. If I remember right the smallest was 0.75 inches there about and weight retention was in the >95%.
This was the older more rounded silver tip bullets. The newer bullets are supposed to be a better design.
My dog has had a lot of these through it and it's the only 44 special ammo I carried for years.
I even have bullets for reloading.
 
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