BUY IT!
That one looks exactly like mine, including solid lockup and tight cylinder gap. I had always figured mine (bought a few years ago) must have been tuned up by a good gunsmith but if this thing is bone-stock, maybe the factory was shipping 'em that way.
It may not look like much, but those suckers shoot NICE. I can hit a torso-sized target offhand 100% of the time firing SA, at 50 *yards*.
These beasties lock up at three points, including the crane. By pulling the ejector rod forward, you can open the cylinder even if the cylinder release at the rear fails somehow. The grip frame and trigger guard are aluminum, the frame is steel and the barrel is steel-core, aluminum shroud. They'll take a limited diet of 158+P no sweat.
Packmeyer still makes a good rubber grip for 'em, if that's your thing. And it feeds off of standard J-Frame speedloaders, such as the HKS36.
Early Charter Arms in *good* shape are possibly the best overall 5-shot snubbie ever made. Weight is lower than an all-steel S&W but heavy enough to control recoil.
I'll never part with mine.
One thing: there's no sideplates, which helps the strength BUT they're kinda funky to wrench on, so only buy one that's tight like mine or the one described above. Since finding a gunsmith may be tricky, as nice as these are, pass on a "project specimen".
But definately grab this one.
Calif legal thing: The new "Charter 2000" corporation brought the design back, with the only major change being a full-underlug barrel and covered ejector rod. They sell under the name "Undercover", and added it to the DOJ "list" recently. I would *assume* that means that old Undercovers like this one are also "on the list", since it really is the same design? Problem is, the "company name" is now "Charter 2000" versus "Charter Arms". I doubt DOJ staff would notice, nor that most gun shops would care. Being "Calif transferrable" they'll probably go for a slight premium out here; in my opinion the gun pictured above in that condition is something I'd pay $200 to own and not even blink, even if that's "slightly over book". I'd carry that baby in preference to ANY Brazilian .38 and it's really as good as most S&Ws, better than some. Only the Colt Detective Special and variants were a better .38snubbie.
Jim