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I had the opportunity to handle and examine an older Charter Arms Undercover revolver. Charter makes a sweet set of wood grips the are a little bigger than the magnas but a little smaller and lighter than the pachmayr's. I agree Charter Arms has better grips than what is offered for the S&W. They look pretty and the conceal very well but they suck for shooting accurately and they kill your hand after a lot of rounds. Everyone likes the original little bitty S&W and Charter Arms magna grips. All other grips are terrible for shooting. I could care less about that and I care more about shooting the gun reliable and accurately than what the guns looks like. No one likes them because they are the heaviest of the grip options and everyone thinks they are ugly. The only grips that I found to be as close to perfect as possible for the S&W J frame is the pachmayr compact grips. I really like my S/W 638 but i carry the Charter because its lighter and i shoot it better The CA is only 12 ounces but is all metal and no exotic stuff to worry about what I use to clean it. Sights on the CA are superior to the sights on the S/W. The CA is more accurate for me because of those factory grips. The CA is more than 3 ounces lighter and i can tell you that makes a difference as I pocket carry. I much prefer the grips the CA off duty came with and have never changed them.Got half a dozen grips for the 638 and none are as good as the CA grips.
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The 638 has a slightly smoother action but not by much. I have a charter arms off-duty and a S/W 638 which is the shrouded hammer version of the 642. In other words try both revolvers out yourself and make your own determination. So what does all this mean? Believe only half of what you see and nothing that you hear. If I had to choose one that I think is better I would choose an older Smith and Wesson like for example a Model 60 or an old Charter Arms Undercover. The Charter Arms is usually a little cheaper. My conclusion is well honestly I like both revolvers just as much. Either two handed or one handed strong handed or weak handed it does not matter! The Charter Arms just shoots well! The gun seems to hit at the point of aim with minimal effort. Also I seem to shoot the Charter Arms more accurately with a wide variety of different 38 special. Furthermore the stainless steel and anodized aluminum CA seems to hold up much better in the long run. It just does not hold up well at all! The finish will look like a big pile of butt in a can after a few short years of constant carry. I dont care for the paint they put on the 642. Also the CA has a better finish on it than the S&W. I can pick up the sights faster and put lead on target much faster with the CA because of this. The sight picture on the CA is more pronounced and way better than the thin bladed front sight of the S&W. With that being said there is some things I do like about the Charter Arms that I dont care for in the S&W and I feel as though the CA is superior to the S&W. What does that mean exactly? Is that a major problem for a self defense revolver? Not necessarily! It just means the revolver needs trigger discipline and lots of practice but it is a big enough problem that a new shooter needs to know about it. On the CA you must fully release the trigger on follow up shots or you will lock up the trigger workings of the revolver. Furthermore the Charter Arms has a major flaw in it's trigger pull. The S&W 642 has the best trigger work hands down! I can stack up the trigger quite nicely and all the workings of the revolver feels smoother than that of the CA Off Duty. So what are the big major differences?įirst off let me get the biggest difference out of the way right now.
DISASSEMBLING CHARTER ARMS PATHFINDER 22 MOVIE
If I did this post would be as long as the movie Titanic. Im not going to go into all the tiny small details. I am not going to go into to much detail on that because both revolvers accuracy is pretty much the same with similar grip choice. By the way I have found that grip choice on these type of revolvers greatly affect how accurate I shoot the guns. Both guns have many accessories and different grip choices you can go with. You might be quite surprised on how these two revolvers stack up to each other.īoth guns have a concealed hammers and both are lightweight easy to conceal and easy to carry revolvers. So how do they stack up? Both are surprisingly quite evenly matched. Charter Arms has been around to stop the bad guys longer than most people been alive. The Smith and Wesson 642 has been my pick as the quintessential go to pocket revolver.