Charter arms Pitbull .45 auto

royc38

Anyone with experiences with the Charter Arms .45 auto revolver? Thinking about purchasing one to compliment my 1911s. Any info good or bad would be appreciated.

rufe-snow

Weighs 22 ozs. Something to be carried a lot, and fired seldomly.

I remember the alloy frame, Colt 45acp Commander. I bought years ago, it weighted 24 ozs. Since I couldn't use it as a CCW. I got rid of it. No fun at all, as range gun @ 24ozs.

savage170

If your a revolver guy you'll like it . I actually carry the Smith and Wesson 325 NG as my main carry gun because I actually prefer the moon clips for a faster reload the 45 acp in a wheel gun works quite well

beantownshootah

Never tried one of these, but I have shot .44 and .45 short revolvers before.

45 ACP from a lightweight revolver, especially, (and IMO 22 ounces is definitely light for this) is a thumper for recoil. Its not something an experienced shooter can't handle, but this is not a pleasant gun to practice with. There are reasons why most makers put out 44/45/and 45 LC snubnoses only in limited runs every once in a while, and its because most shooters don't like and don't want them. These are mostly for "gun nuts" and revolver buffs.

In terms of ballistics, .45ACP, .44 special, and .45 Long colt (normal loads), are all more or less similar. I really don't think you can argue with those ballistics, which are better than the snubnose standard .38+P.

Advantages of .45 ACP vs the other .45 caliber revolver rounds are that the same rounds will work in your auto guns, they're much cheaper, and easier to find. If you want to, you can load 45ACP cartridges for this revolver with bullet shapes that would likely choke many 1911s, and you can also "deload" them down to lower power that might not reliably cycle your auto.

On moon clips, this particular Charter Arms gun is designed to eject 45ACP rounds without them. That's good, though it also means you have to manually snap each round into place when you load it into the cylinder. (IE they don't just drop in under gravity).

Because of that, I don't think converting one of these to accept moonclips is practical. If you want to use those, you may be better off starting with a different platform.