Range Review: The Charter Arms Bulldog .44

When I started up this blog I wanted to focus on a bigger variety of things than just religious topics. The Deep End is about things I deeply love and feel deeply passionate about. Faith issues just happen to be one of the biggies. But today I want to take a break from that and look at one of my other passions: guns. When the zombie apocalypse hits, the two things I’m grabbing off my shelf as I run to the hills from the hordes of undead are my Bible and my Bulldog .44. Those two things are keys to survival for me – if I have the canon and the cannon I can make it.

Barry and the Bulldog

My brother-in-law Barry and I loaded up and headed out to The Gun Cave Indoor Firing Range with my Charter Arms Bulldog .44 along with a box of Winchester .44 Special 240 grain flat nose and a box of Hornady Cirtical Defense 165 grain FTX. I want to start with a review of the Gun Cave since it was our first visit there.

The Gun Cave is owned by Jan Morgan who is an ardent 2^nd Amendment supporter and highly educated critic of Islam. She made national headlines by banning Muslims from her shooting range last year. Although the mainstream media wants us to believe Morgan is some sort of nutty right-wing extremist Islamophobe full of hate and intolerance, I’d like to clarify that she is nothing like that. It was cool to actually meet her and her husband and get to visit with them at the range. Jan is just someone with a passion for America and the fundamental freedoms found in our Constitution. Nothing nutty at all. Barry and I were actually a little star-struck after getting to meet her and talk briefly with her.

The service at The Gun Cave was excellent. They have seven shooting lanes and you can rent eye and ear protection cheaply and they also have an assortment of inexpensive targets for shooting. The atmosphere is laid back, and they even have a nice lounge area if you want to just hang out. One thing we did not check out on this visit was their virtual firing range which sounded really good, especially for some tactical training for personal defense. Membership is a requirement but it is only a $15 charge and requires a minimal amount of paperwork (one page) to fill out. Within 15 minutes of arriving, we were on the range.

The Gun Cave range runs out to 25 yards and you can fire anything up to a .50 caliber there. The Bulldog is not so much a target pistol as a defense weapon, so we set our target up at seven yards which is the distance used to qualify for a concealed carry license. We started with the 240 grain Winchester rounds.

Charter Arms Model 74420 Stainless Standard .44 Special

The Bulldog is a lightweight revolver for such a big bore. It comes in just around 20 ounces empty. It has a good balanced feel in the hand, with a comfortable set of grips. I have the model 74420 StainlessStandard which has an exposed hammer so you can fire double action or single action. In my hand the revolver feels well balanced and just the right size for me. I did have some concerns about recoil, but after burning through a cylinder of the Winchester rounds I found it totally manageable. With a tight, two handed grip I experienced only a minor amount of muzzle flip that made it quick and easy to re-acquire the target between shots. At 7 yards it was easy to maintain tight shot groups.

I did most of my firing with double action and found the trigger pull lighter than expected. It was comfortable to cycle and didn’t leave my trigger finger feeling wore out at all. In single action mode I found accuracy a little better but felt the trigger to be almost too light of a pull for my comfort level. We burned through a 50 round box of the Winchester flat nose and found the Bulldog nothing but fun to shoot.

Next we moved onto the Hornady Critical Defense rounds. I had a little trepidation about how these would impact the shooting of the Bulldog. The Winchester rounds leave the muzzle at about 750 fps whereas the 165 grain Hornady round kicks out at 900 fps. I found my concern unnecessary as the felt recoil with the Hornady rounds differed extremely little from the Winchester rounds. The sound and muzzle flash were definitely greater, and a “wump” of pressure from the Bulldog was more noticeable. It still was comfortable to fire. We went through 4 cylinders (20 rounds) of the Hornady and then called it a day.

Overall I loved the Bulldog. It was everything I hoped it would be. I am a revolver person and it exceeded all of my expectations. My goal was to find a weapon that would be easy to carry, have an intimidating profile and offer excellent stopping power at short range. The Bulldog definitely fills all of these criteria perfectly. If the Bulldog has any shortcomings it is the capacity of only 5 rounds. However, I prefer the reliability and safety of a revolver, and if I ever need more than 5 rounds for self-defense I am in big trouble anyway.

Me (Randy) on the left and my range buddy/bro-in-law Barry

My three recommendations from this experience (plus one bonus):

1. The Charter Arms Bulldog is a great revolver. Chambered in .44 special it presents an intimidating muzzle and is easy to handle and has great stopping power. The only disadvantage is the five round capacity.
2. The Hornady Critical Defense rounds offer a great design for personal defense. The only disadvantage here is price – I don’t want to burn through too many of them at the range but do it enough to be familiar with how they handle.
3.  The Gun Cave Indoor Firing Range is a great place to go to spend some time with your firearms and fellow shooters. No disadvantages here at all.
4. I also wanted to give props to the crew at Arego's Guns where I purchased my Bulldog. They gave me a great price on a great firearm with great service.