[rugertoter]

I have been looking at these for a while, and today decided to buy one. It is the Charter Arms .357 Mag Pug.

Anyone have experience with Charter?

 

[paulruger]

I had it's twin in 44 spl.along with one of Charter's Italian made leather holsters. Carried if for awhile but traded it off. My standard mid-range 44 spl. load of 7.5 grains of Unique and Elmer's bullet was way too much recoil! Decent quality though. Let us know how full power 357 mags. work in it!

 

[rugertoter]

I had it's twin in 44 spl.along with one of Charter's Italian made leather holsters. Carried if for awhile but traded it off. My standard mid-range 44 spl. load of 7.5 grains of Unique and Elmer's bullet was way too much recoil! Decent quality though. Let us know how full power 357 mags. work in it!

Yup, most certainly will. Was going to take it to the range today, but due to this crappy "mini" snow storm we had here yesterday, I ended up having to take care of things around the house.

 

[quirky]

Anyone have experience with Charter?

Have tried to like them but worry about how good their metal is, seems to be like 'pot metal' like Bersa uses. Hard to understand how suppsoevive all stainless steel construction can weigh so lite.

 

[buster40c]

I have the Charter 44 special Bulldog and it has been my daily carry for the past several years. I have shot around 750 home reloaded rounds with no problems at all with the gun. The gun seems to be well made. I can shoot 250 of my hand loads without any hand pain.
I imagine shooting 357 mags in your gun will be a handful that might not be fun shooting a box of 50. My 44 with factory hollow points is much more stout shooting than my reloads but still isn't as bad for recoil as most 357 revolvers I have shot.

 

[nickndfl]

I bet that it looks like the USS Iowa when you shoot it at night.

 

[rugertoter]

I bet that it looks like the USS Iowa when you shoot it at night.

Yeah, I bet so too, but I still have not had the chance to shoot it! I was going to go yesterday, but we ended up having a worse snow storm, than we did last Saturday!

 

[rugertoter]

Have tried to like them but worry about how good their metal is, seems to be like 'pot metal' like Bersa uses. Hard to understand how suppsoevive all stainless steel construction can weigh so lite.

Well, I don't know about Bersa building "pot metal" guns. I have owned a few in the past, and still have a Thunder 380, that I have had for about ten years now, and it has shot a lot of rounds...still runs fine for me, and I carry it at times as well.

 

[silveradoman59]

I can't speak to the 357, but I bought a 38 special Lavender Lady for my wifes birthday in 2010 and it still shoots like a champ. We've never had a problem with it. Whatever you do don't ever take it completely down for cleaning. I did it once and there are two washers under the cylinder release, and it's a PITA to get them lined up to re-assemble. Other than that, (my mistake) nothing ever wrong. As for recoil it's not bad at all for me in the 38 spl. I'm sure the 357 will be markedly more but I would be interested in having one except for lack of funds and Illinois new law about them keeping an electronic record of sales with the state police. Gotta get out of the Peoples Republic.

 

[greg_r]

Charter Arms sells a tool to help with reassembly of the cylinder latch. Makes reassembly a breeze.