Some shoot better then others, but most all can be reliable if the proper ammo is found and you clean the guts of the revolver.
Having said all that, the Charter Arms' are good little revolvers. Make sure its the same lot, ammo does very from lot to lot. Then when you find a brand that works, buy a couple boxes for Carry. Same thing, shoot the whole box to make sure it works. If you get one round that fails to fire, save the remainder for practice and get another brand. Buy one box at a time, firing the whole box until you find what works. So with the Carter Arms (and every other gun used in SD) one should be picky on his/her carry ammo. With out bad mouthing any ammo manufacture, some ammo works better then others.Īny SD handgun needs ammo that works each and every shot. But often the cups are too hard for some of the Charter Arms, I had to go to Federal Primers to get more consistent ignition. I'm a big fan of Winchester Primers and use them in all my reloading. These people cant afford a lot of ammo so our club furnishes the ammo.
So they are often sluggish at the start of the class but as it warms up, the start working better.Īnother problem is primer choice.
#CHARTER ARMS UNDERCOVER 38 SPECIAL VSLUE PLUS#
I try to get to the range early to get the heat going, but its still rather cold at the start of the class, plus many of these women keep the gun in the car prior to the class. It gets cold here in the winter, (9 below at last nights class). It also makes the gun sluggish in cold weather. This grease hardens and makes the gun sluggish. First Charter Arms greases (or oils) their internal parts. When I find a round that wont go off in the Charter Arms, I shoot them in my Smith 642, it shoots them all.Ĭharter arms revolvers work, but caution needs to be addressed. I also see a lot of weak hammer falls, not all primers are reliable in these guns. They aren't designed for Plus P loads, so I suggest people avoid those and stick to standard 38s. Though I don't own a Charter Arms I deal with them quite a bit and have some observations. They are quite popular, easy to shoot (at self defense distances) easy to conceal, and for most of these ladies, reasonably priced. Having said that, small 38 revolvers seem to fit a lot of these ladies, Low recoil and concealable. I don't tell the students what gun to buy, we're all different and different guns fit different people. The class contains a lot of ladies, who may be single mothers, low to low/middle income, in other words for the most part these aren't well to do people, but still have the desire to protect themselves and their families. Carrying +P for occasional self defense shooting wont hurt any Charter.I conduct a women's Firearm Safety and SD course every winter. Mine can and have shot the +P but the manufacturer does not recommend it, and I have probably shot less than a few hundred rounds of +P. I can shoot a lot better for distance with a 3 inch though. It is light, small, and it always works perfectly, and it does not leave empty casings lying around. I like them better than the Smiths for some reason. They have ALWAYS worked flawlessly, and still do, and the Charter Arms Undercover 38 is my usual carry gun. I also got several of them for my friends, and for my relatives when they wanted a cheap, VERY reliable, small, light, self defense handgun.
I have several of the Charter Arms Uncercover 38 revolvers from the 1970's, and I shot the heck out of them in the last 30 years. This is not exactly what you want to hear, but.