I recently joined in a discussion on this forum of a thread about Charter Arms revolvers. The consensus of opinion seemed to be that the old ones were very good guns. Everyone was trying to explain to each other how to tell if a used Charter Arms gun was one of the old "good" ones or not. The only problem was that everyone on the thread seemed to be of the opinion that the home of Charter Arms guns in the old days was Stamford, CT. But being uncomfortable with that, I just looked up the guy I sold my old circa 1972 snub-nosed Charter Arms "Undercover" model 38 Special revolver to, and looked at that gun again, and imprinted right there on it's barrel, it said Charter Arms Corp. BRIDGEPORT, CT. That was a mighty good little gun. It featured a supposedly unbreakable berilium (sp?)firing pin (which still hadn't broken 37 years after purchase) and last week, the old gun still locked up as tight as ever. Those old Charter Arms 38 Special Undercover model revolvers from that era were really pretty good guns, and Bridgeport, Ct. is apparently where the really good old ones were made. So, I'd say if you are looking for an old CA 38 Special Undercover model, if you can find one that's still in good condition - let's say one that's been lying around in a drawer for 35 years - and it says Bridgeport, Ct. on the barrel, and if it hasn't been fed a steady diet of +P ammo which it really was not ever designed to shoot (and which at a minimum will eventually loosen up and ruin the gun if you do shoot a lot of it, if it doesn't actually blow up in your face) you probably have found one of the good old ones.
Wasn't Bridgeport, CT. home to the original Charter Arms Corp?
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