Charter Arms 2" Undercover .32 S&W Long

[amk]

So I finally picked it up on Saturday, the Bombay Gun House guy did a pretty good bluing job. I don't know why he left the ejector rod silvery, I'll have the rod reblued when I go there again. I'll also take out the lanyard hook (advise?)

The revolver is the lightest .32 revolver I have ever held, probably due to the one piece alloy trigger guard and grip. Compared to my other handgun this is extremely concealable and easy to carry, I may now carry where on other occasions I wouldn't have due to the size and weight of my other handgun. However, don't let the size and weight fool anyone, it is very comfortable to grip and shoot, the sights are great too.

I took it to the range yesterday for a quick test, got 19 rounds downrange. KF ammo, some imported SWC and one Magtech hollowpoint. It shot all without any hiccups, didn't feel like it was overheating and ejection was no problem too. After this I shot the 1911 and realised how incomparable (in terms of accuracy) the Charter Arms or the .32 S&W L or snubbie revolvers are when up against a bigger caliber. With the 1911 I was getting 2 to 3 inch groups at 10 to 15 yards. With the .32 revolver my shots were all over the place (usually low and slightly to the left). All within damaging range on a man sized target but nowhere as accurate as the 1911. It's surprising as the .32 S&W round is supposedly pretty accurate. I shot in single and double action modes.

The reason could be anything; my first time with this gun, the ammo, snubbie, the wind blowing the target up and down??? Having said all this, you can't beat this gun from a CCW point of view in the Indian scenario. I think at close quarters I (or anyone) can empty 6 rounds into a damage zone of a target with ease and speed.

I've loaded it up with 4 HPs, 1 SWC, 1 KF ball (until I buy some more ammo). What do you think would be a good load, HPs, SWCs or imported ball? Will HPs expand, will SWC penetrate? What do you guys carry in your .32 revolvers and/or pistols?

Here are some pics, sorry about the bad quality but photography has never been my number one subject

Cheers, AMK

[Sakobav]

Congrats and enjoy the gun; My uncle has exactly the same gun bought in 1982.

Best

[shadow]

Congrats AMK!
Where did you lay your hands on this one? I have heard that they are not easy to find, these snubbies that too in a good (NIB) condition. Damn neat! So the debate continues - Revolvers v/s pistol! Hope to meet you at the Worli range soon.
Cheers,
Rup!

[Olly]

I would have advised you not to mix the KF and the imported ammo. First just fire the KFs and see the grouping. Next, fire the revolver loaded with imported ammo and inspect the grouping. This way, you will have a fair idea of how different brands of ammo perform for you. My experience says that you will have a considerably accurate grouping with the imported ammo... maybe even equivalent to the 1911 pistol, rather than the KF rounds.

Congratulations for the revolver.... have fun.

[amk]

I would have advised you not to mix the KF and the imported ammo. First just fire the KFs and see the grouping. Next, fire the revolver loaded with imported ammo and inspect the grouping. This way, you will have a fair idea of how different brands of ammo perform for you. My experience says that you will have a considerably accurate grouping with the imported ammo... maybe even equivalent to the 1911 pistol, rather than the KF rounds.

Congratulations for the revolver.... have fun.

I primarily fired KF ammo; only on one load I had 4 SWC and 1 HP. That load didn't seem to go too well too.

AMK

[amk]

Congrats AMK!
Where did you lay your hands on this one? I have heard that they are not easy to find, these snubbies that too in a good (NIB) condition. Damn neat! So the debate continues - Revolvers v/s pistol! Hope to meet you at the Worli range soon.
Cheers,
Rup!

Thanks Rup. I got it at a dealer in Mumbai. It wasn't in this condition before I bought it, the finish had gone. And yes, it is not easy to find these.

Thanks to you too Ngrewal.

AMK

[rcdoma]

Congrats AMK!!! It's a beauty! Enjoy...

[TenX]

Nice piece there. Remember seeing it some time back at the state range, when some one had got it over to fire a few shots.

BTW, the left side of the hammer looks a little rusty, or was it some oil?

...All within damaging range on a man sized target but nowhere as accurate as the 1911....

Probably, the more prominent rear sight of the 1911 and the added length of the barrel makes a difference in getting tighter grouping...

[indian]

Congrats Amk

thats a nice looking gun and its perfectly fit for concealed carry.i never came across a charter arms revolver in india and im pretty sure this one is not a very old piece.i personally wouldnt mind buying a reblued gun or one with worn out blueing as long as the internals are not tampered and the bore is perfect.the hollow points or KF would be the best ones for carry instead of wad cutters.regarding the advice on a lanyard,i would just leave it in its place.

Cheers,
Ravi teja

[timmy]

AMK:

This is a nice carry gun you have there! Snubbies do tend to take a little bit of practice to get used to, I agree. There is something that "works" on 1911s well for me also. One thing is, I think, that on the 1911, the grip is rectangular in section, where on a lot of DA revolvers (especially the smaller ones), the grips tend to be more round in cross section, making it harder to point naturally. A 1911 tends to "lay" in my hand, where with other handguns, I have to work harder at holding them.

I don't want to sound presumptuous (everyone has an opinion), but my brother gave a tip on shooting double action: Rather than pulling the trigger with the pad on the end of my finger, I pull the trigger with the area between the first and second knuckle. I place my finger on the trigger in such a way as to have the tip of it touch the frame of the revolver in front of and above the grip at the point the hammer is breaking to fall. That way, I know the point at which the gun will fire. It does take some practice, I agree!

One thing that might help would be to try and find a good set of "snap caps" that will allow you to practice this at home. Being very careful to be safe, you can then form a feeling of the point when the hammer will fall and save some (but certainly not all) on your range sessions.

On the ammo, I think Oily's advice is quite sound: shoot one kind of ammo at a time. Remember that in a defensive situation, you are going to be relying a lot on instinct, and the idea of practice is to form habits that will translate into instinct. You want to know instinctively where the bullet is going to go when you obtain a certain site picture with a certain hold, because if you should have to use the weapon, you won't have time to think about things in detail.

On the ammo also, I don't have experience with 32s in revolvers (only my .32 ACP and 7..62 x 25), but I will say this as what I think and you can take if for whatever it is worth to you: I am suspicious of expanding HP bullets in low velocity weapons. I do use Cor-Bon ammo in my .32 ACP because there are data indicating that it will truly expand. But I mix it with ball (FMJ).

The idea here is that, no matter what you are shooting, the primary requirement is to place the bullet in a spot that will "get the job done." It is clear that and expanding bullet, by increasing in diameter, also increases the chances to "get the job done," but a large margin of bullet placement is not offered in this case. The expanding bullet doesn't "hit harder" or perform any other kind of magic. Personally, I would feel safer with the penetration of SWC or even round nose, if you don't know for sure that an expanding bullet is going to work when it is fired out of your gun.

In my .38 Special snubby, I do use my own loads with 110gr Sierra hollow points. These loads are pretty hot for a small frame revolver -- at least in the +P range and not the sort of thing that the weapon can digest as a regular diet. I do feel that I will get some penetration at close range with such a load out of that gun.

The thing I would want to consider is what might happen if the bullet hits an eye glass case or a rib or something -- in such an instance, it will have to penetrate to do its job.

But, as I understand it, you are faced with a tough situation when it comes to ammo availability. If you can, it would be good to have your carry ammo shoot to near the same point of impact (say, 7 yards/meters or some reasonable range like that) as your practice ammo. Then even if you can only come across a box of 50 of your carry ammo, you will have a nice cache. I am not sure if my opinion here is even relevant to your circumstances, however.

[goodboy_mentor]

In my opinion .32 is a low powered bullet, FMJ is better compared with Hollow point. I have "heard" instance when .32 bullet was not able to penetrate required distance to hit heart in winter season(person was wearing warm clothes).
One can refer statistics at http://www.goldenloki.com/ammo/gel/32acp/gel32acp.htm
Following can also be referred http://www.internetarmory.com/handgunammo.htm

[Sakobav]

AMK

Those are nice set of guns you have congrats. Trivia Charter arms .44 Bulldog was made infamous as the gun used by serial killer "Son of Sam" in NYC, it was neighbors dog that ordered him to commit the murders . My uncles gun was imported in 1982 it came via post those were the days. This snubby is a great CCW gun and its a great back up to your master blaster..to be on safe side just pay less attention to the dogs...joking

Cheers

[rogerstar]

Congrats AMK !

If I may ask . . . How much did you pay for it ?

Happy Shooting !

[amk]

Thanks TenX, the hammer is slightly rusty/discoloured but it's mainly oil you see in the pictures. It's not a big deal. The 1911 sights, even the rear one, are not really prominent. I've got night sights which I am contemplating putting on.... for the last 6 months I think the accuracy is due to the better balance and ergonomics as Timmy says.


Thanks for the tips timmy, I will try and put in to practice your recommendations this weekend at the range. In tried shooting with the pad of my finger but it's just not possible in DA mode with a revo IMO. I will pay more attention to how I shoot the next time.

Timmy ; I've also not heard anything (or good things) about expansion in .32 S&W; I think I'll just move to good quality Ball ammo for carry.

Thanks Ngrewal and roger. I paid around 2.75 for it.

AMK

[rajput]

AMK !

Many thanks for your info ! To all member friends on the forum - Please help me find a similar revolver~reasonably priced~