I've had quite a few Charter Arms revolvers, 9 or 10 over the years: Undercovers and Off Duty's and even had them build me a custom 4 inch barreled .38 special with adjustable rear sight and custom serial number. All my Charters have been reliable except the one Undercover that I decided to run +P thru repeatedly. I rattled that poor old gun to pieces. But, all the others in standard pressure ammo all ran fine, lock up was tight on all of them. I'm not as big a fan of the new Charter Arms as I am of the older ones. I prefer the Stratford, CT guns made in 70's and 80's. They always had the best quality to me and can be found affordably on Gunbroker and other sites, as well as in pawn shops. The Off Duty's of that era often had an orange dot in the front sight, very easy to see front sight. The older Charters had steel frames with aluminum grip frames and trigger guards.
Pros: Regardless of when the gun was made, almost all the grips fit almost all the guns. The skinny wood grips from the 70's can be removed and the black rubber 2 finger or 3 finger grips available on the Charter website screw right on and fit perfectly. As Lee N.Field had mentioned, you can also buy a DAO hammer for a Charter .38, is very simple to install, and easily available on the website, fits all current models and all older models as well.
Also, any Charter Arms manufactured in Shelton, Ct. comes with lifetime warranty, regardless of how many owners its been thru.
Will it have the fit and finish of a S&W? New ones...eh, maybe not, older ones are better but still not as refined as S&W.
Will it have a trigger as good as a S&W? Debatable. Some say yes, some say no.
Will it have a trigger as good as the Ruger LCR? Nope, not even close, those triggers are nice !
Would I rather have a Charter Arms or a Taurus? I'd take Charter Arms all day long over Taurus. Here's a 1987 Off Duty I picked up on GunBroker for $165. Works perfectly.
https://ibb.co/cB2TGJ
