Charter Arms Pit Bull Saga - Found New Ammo

T

Tom-Fairfax

New member
After considering chucking my Charter Arms Pit Bull into the Potomac River due to the absence of 9MM Federal rimmed ammo, I found a good samaritan who has offered to produce enough custom ammo for me in this configuration to make it worthwhile keeping the revolver.

The ammo works perfectly and the price is entirely reasonable. So, if you're a frustrated Pit Bull owner needing ammo, drop me a PM.

By the way, I'm not profiting from any of this. I just thought I'd mention it because I've seen a number of inquiries on various firearms sites about where to get 9 MM Federal.

CAUTION: Do not ever fire 9 MM Federal in anything but the Pit Bull. It's a custom round designed for that revolver only. There are some online horror stories about pistols exploding when their owners tried to fire 9 MM Federal out of revolvers built only for firing weaker .38 S&W rounds.
 
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Read somewhere that 38 spl brass can be trimmed back to 9mm fed length, dont know any more than that.
 
Can you just use a .38 Short Colt case so you don't have to trim .38 special cases? Just curious if anyone else has tried this.
 
Here are the photos you requested. I received them from the supplier of the ammo. I've only fired the FMJ. Each round consisted of 115 grains in a cut down Winchester .38 spl. brass case. All of the 25 rounds I received for evaluation fired perfectly. The Charter Arms Pit Bull is a solidly built double action five round revolver. It handled this ammo competently, but the relatively compact construction of the revolver created a fair amount of recoil. In other words, unless you have big wrists, this revolver is most easily handled with two hands. For what it's worth, the recoil from this revolver was substantially greater than that of the compact KelTec semi auto that I fired during the same testing session. This is only significant in that the rimless 9MM rounds I fired in the KelTec were similar in most respects to the rimmed 9MM rounds I fired in the Pit Bull.
 

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I'm currently only shooting 115 grain FMJ rounds. The rated FPS for the hollow points is 1180. The Pit Bull has a relatively short barrel, so increasing the load past 115 grains will, in my estimation, only make the revolver harder to keep steady.
 
wouldnt using 38 super cases make better sense? no difference in crimp, profile is almost the same, trimming still needed but the bullet is the same and well it could be fun.
 
The .38 Super is a semi rimmed cartridge. Rim thickness on the .38 Special brass is .058 and the 38 Super rim measures .050. I do not know what the rim thickness is on genuine 9mm Federal brass.
 
Better choice - use 38 S&W brass

I own a Charter Pit Bull in 9mm Federal. The 38 S&W is nearly a case match for the 9mm Federal round, so if I use 38 S&W fired cases (made in the last 50-60 years) then you don't get all that ugly bulges using cut-down 38 SPL brass can give you.

Of Course, personally having 240 rounds of factory Federal 9mm Federal and 60 fired cases I load, I don't expect to run out of cases for the life of my gun. :D:D:D
 
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