Current Charter quality

by A K Church, Saturday, March 02, 2024, 06:44 (267 days ago)

Friend is intrigued by some of the relatively low priced .32 H&R snubbies they make.

The 80s stainless "Pathfinder" was a good revolver. Reliable, decently accurate, and strong, if never very smooth. I pretty much shot it single action, and I was golden. It's one I wish I'd kept.

I am always hinky about the later build quality. I got a .22 revolver from Otony, which was, as he had very well warned me, pretty bad. But that was made under an early 20th Century version of the company.

So how is the quality of the new stuff being made in, say, 2023 and 2024?

I haven't played with anything new.

by Hoot @, Diversityville, Liberal-sota, Saturday, March 02, 2024, 07:18 (267 days ago) @ A K Church

I will admit I am intrigued by the .32H&R as well. I have a "Son of Sam" era Bulldog with which I am happy and previously had a Bulldog Pug which had an aluminum shrouded barrel. The shroud shot loose and, after the second go at fixing it, I sent it along down the road.

Not much help for your friend....sorry.

I haven't played with anything new.

by Sarge ⌂ @, Central Misery, Sunday, March 17, 2024, 10:44 (252 days ago) @ Hoot

I have a friend, old retired Tennessee cop, who's been through two or three recent Charter 44s and finally gave up on them. I don't recall the entire laundry list but he is a knowledgeable shooter and wouldn't kick them to the curb for no reason. He has several Rossi revolvers and likes them.

All my old Charters were Bridgeport guns and they were pretty decent revolvers. Any parts I ever needed was usually sent at no charge, with a phone call to the company.

I really hate to hear about the recent problems with the company. I had about talked myself into one of their little 45 ACP snubs.

Current Charter quality

by Otony, Saturday, March 02, 2024, 09:48 (267 days ago) @ A K Church

About two years ago, I bought an aluminum framed version of the revolver I sent you. It had to be returned to Charter to function correctly. Besides that one, we had to send two others back for repair, neither of which would function correctly straight out of the box.

I want to like a few of their offerings, but I am underwhelmed by their quality control. Having written that, at least all three examples were returned in working order.

Otony

Current Charter quality

by A K Church, Sunday, March 03, 2024, 05:24 (266 days ago) @ Otony

On the stainless ex-Otony .22, the extraction woes were tied to cases swelling at the base. All 6 chambers were badly cut, and badly cut in an odd way. The were normal for 85-90%, and right before the rim, there was this sort of belt. Doubt that was from tooling wear, that had to be an actual bad cutter, which still got used.

The current Charter is not the same as the one who manufactured the ex-Otony. However, after much correspondence, the 2023 iteration of Charter agreed to fix it. That they did, it now pushes the empties out nicely. The badly executed crane cut in the frame wasn't fixed, and I doubt it could be. But it functions fine despite it.

I will add the 2023 Charter did not charge for the work, and paid the return shipping.

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