For several decades now, Charter Arms has
been building good, reliable, and affordable American made
revolvers. Their compact
five-shot .44 Special Bulldog has a cult following of
shooters who just love the little belly guns. I hardly ever see
a used one for sale, as most folks who buy them tend to keep
them. Same with the .22
Pathfinder. For many years, the all-steel .38 Special Undercover
and Off Duty revolvers
have proven to be good solid little pocket revolvers. Recently,
Charter has introduced a lighter weight version of their .38
Special revolvers that utilize a lightweight aluminum alloy
frame, reducing the weight to around twelve ounces, making the
already good pocket gun even better for concealed carry.
Just a few months ago, Charter Arms introduced a
true left-handed version of their lightweight revolver called
the Undercover Southpaw. It is the first double action
revolver built specially for the left-handed shooter, with the
cylinder latch on the right side, and the cylinder swinging to
the right for loading without switching the revolver to the
right hand. Good idea.
With Charter using the aluminum alloy frames,
they can anodize them in any color that they wish. When Nick
Ecker, the head honcho at Charter, told me that he had come
out with a pink Undercover revolver, I first thought that he was
joking. When he told me he might call it "The Pink Bitch",
I thought he was crazy. Anyway, a couple of days later, the gun
arrived, and sure enough, right along the side of the two inch
barrel, the words "The Pink Bitch" are laser
engraved. The pink revolver is marketed towards women, who are
fast becoming a huge part of the market for self defense type
firearms. I had my doubts, but wanted a few women’s opinions.
I was surprised at their reactions. After showing the gun around
to several women, the response was overwhelmingly positive.
Every one of the women who saw the little gun liked it. One
objected to the inscription, but the others thought it fitting.
All of them liked the color, the light weight, and the feel of
the handgun. The pink Undercover will also be available in
a right-handed version, to better suit the majority of shooters.
A compact revolver is an excellent choice for a
carry gun. The sample gun shown here is the left-handed version:
the Undercover Southpaw. It weighed in at just over fourteen
ounces with the hard synthetic rubber grips. The grips are
hand-filling, and really help in controlling the lightweight
little thirty-eight. The five shot cylinder is rated okay for
Plus P ammunition, and I fired it mostly using Buffalo Bore
Gold Dot 125 grain hollowpoint Heavy .38 Plus P ammo. Keeping
five quick shots on a silhouette target at combat ranges from
three to twenty-five yards was easy to do, with the Undercover
Southpaw controllable in rapid double action fire, even with
such a light weight. Being left-handed myself, I appreciated the
left hand design, although it took some getting used to, after
many years of shooting right-handed revolvers. The
cylinder of the Undercover locks up in the front and back. The
ejector rod is shrouded, and the barrel is two inches long with
a heavy profile. The trigger pull measured just under ten pounds
double action, and right at four pounds in single action mode.
Besides the pink anodized frame, the majority of the parts on
the Undercover are made of stainless steel.
I own several Charter revolvers, and have for
decades. They are solid, reliable little guns. With this new
pink frame, it offers another color option to women (or confused
men) who want to add a little flair to their personal defense
weapon. Regardless of color or barrel inscription, Charter’s
Pink Bitch is a good little carry gun. It is lightweight and
powerful. It carries well in a pants or jacket pocket, or I
suppose in a purse as well.
Check out this and other Charter products online
at www.charterfirearms.com.
To order Buffalo Bore ammunition, go to www.buffalobore.com.
Jeff Quinn
Got something to say about this article? Want to agree (or
disagree) with it? Click the following link to go to the GUNBlast Feedback Page.
