Charter Pitbull .40 Experiences?

R

Randallpink

New member
This little revolver intrigues me.

Does anyone have any experience with it? I just found out these exists today and they have me curious.
 
I bought one the end of january, 40 rounds thru it and it broke, couldn't close cylinder as it fell out of the yoke. It is now back at the factory getting fixed I hope, I had to pay the shipping to the factory. I'm not impressed.
 
Interesting revolver but I don't see the purpose. It's only 1 oz lighter than the stainless Bulldog. I haven't found other dimensions, but would think there isn't much difference. Considering the 2.3 inch barrel, and gas escaping from the cylinder gap I wonder what performance gain you would get over a Bulldog. It would be interesting to see the actual velocity differences in the 40S&W Pitbull vs the 44Spcl Bulldog.
 
The purpose is strictly for those who want to use .40 S&W over .44 spl for some reason. Reasons I can think of are as BUG paired with a .40 S&W semi-auto, for those who want a big bore revolver and don't reload .40 S&W is cheaper than .44 spl, or for people who already do reload .40 and don't want to add another caliber. I have no use for it for either of these three reasons, except I don't reload but want to start reloading in the near future anyways so it's a moot point to me.

I've been wondering for a while now why Charter didn't start with the 9mm or 45acp since both calibers are common and have demand. Maybe it's because nobody at the time was offering a .40 revolver, but it seems to me that there is a bit more demand for the 9mm and .45 versions.

Also, anybody thinking about buying this as carry revolver should look up and watch some of the videos about reloading it on youtube. Apparently, each round must be manually pushed into the cylinder to catch the retention spring inside the star (the part that makes it not need moonclips). This makes it so you can't really use speedloaders, and might slow down speed strips or loading one-by-one a little bit.

Don't get me wrong, I DO think these revolvers have a purpose and I do like Charter Arms, but I just find myself less and less interested in the Pitbull and more and more interested in the Bulldogs: proven design in a proven caliber for that design, slightly longer barrel, and cheaper than the pitbulls plus more options to boot.

Again, the purpose is more for those that want to use .40 because of price or ammo consolidation (same caliber for multiple handguns) than it is for trying to get more power or reliability over the regular .44 Bulldog.

Edit to add:
Great review Mr.Revolverguy! very informative.
 
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The purpose is strictly for those who want to use .40 S&W over .44 spl for some reason. Reasons I can think of are as BUG paired with a .40 S&W semi-auto, for those who want a big bore revolver and don't reload .40 S&W is cheaper than .44 spl, or for people who already do reload .40 and don't want to add another caliber.
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.40 S&W also offers a much wider variety and better availability of premium JHP ammunition than .44 Special does. While the Pitbull does fill a rather limited niche, I think that it makes more sense than the original Pitbull in the now-obsolete 9mm Federal cartridge.
 
I've been wondering for a while now why Charter didn't start with the 9mm or 45acp since both calibers are common and have demand. Maybe it's because nobody at the time was offering a .40 revolver, but it seems to me that there is a bit more demand for the 9mm and .45 versions.
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They're making the Pitbull for the police backup market. Since the most common caliber used for police sidearms is .40, that's makes the most sense for the pitbull. They'll probably bring one out in 9mm soon. I believe they're having to re-engineer things for .45 because they don't have a standard frame size that is big enough.
 
I would love to have one in .45 acp. I've always been interested in the Bull Dog in .44, but they are hard to find in my neck of the corn field, and I prefer to handle a gun before buying.
 
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