Charter Arms Research

[snakemaster7]

I have an old Undercover .38 SPL with the Bridgeport address. It looks like it's in great condition except for a chip in the what looks like to be the original wooden grip where it meets the trigger guard. It was pretty neat to find out about this little gun as I write this, seeing as I know nothing really about guns, and this one I got from my grandpa that he I believe purchased from a pawn shop probably a couple years ago. The first 3 numbers for the serial are 765XX. I guess this gun was a really early one, probably in the 1960's seeing as it has the Bridgeport address. Very cool indeed. However, I got chills after reading that this was basically the gun that killed John Lennon Still awesome though, and although it may not be worth a ton like other guns, its cool to know this was one of the first ones made for CA.

[32 Magnum]

Snakemaster7,
Thanks for the info. Just estimating, I'd say yours is at latest early 1967 production. Nice little guns. Replacement grips are available on the internet auction sites, most all the time - I've gotten at least five sets of different configs. Yours would have the smooth stained walnut with the Charter Arms scroll medallions. Since it is a heritage piece, having been your Grandpa's, the value is inestimable.
I'm glad I've been of help.
Jim

IMG_2595_2.jpg

[Coustain]

I have a Charter Arms Undercover .38 with SN 38689X with the Stratford CONN address. I picked it for for dirt cheap at a gun store a few years ago, the finish it is perfect condition.


n575452243_2233153_7763867 by Tyrell Osborne, on Flickr

[snakemaster7]

Snakemaster7,
Thanks for the info. Just estimating, I'd say yours is at latest early 1967 production. Nice little guns. Replacement grips are available on the internet auction sites, most all the time - I've gotten at least five sets of different configs. Yours would have the smooth stained walnut with the Charter Arms scroll medallions. Since it is a heritage piece, having been your Grandpa's, the value is inestimable.
I'm glad I've been of help.
Jim

IMG_2595_2.jpg

Looks like my grip is a replacement then, seeing as it's not the smooth stained walnut from what I can tell. It does have the scroll medallions on it though.(*EDIT* upon further research, I see that it may infact be an original still, with the checkering on it. Saw a post by you on The High Road site, but maybe its a Bulldog grip seeing as I see a lot of those with this one on them) The value thing is funny though, because my grandpa is blind, so we kind of wanted to take some stuff off his hands if you know what I mean However, my dad told me that he might of purchased it waaay before I thought, probably closer to when it first came out, and probably not at a pawn shop. Cool to know. Here are some pics

[imashooter2]

I have an Undercoverette, Bridgeport, 2 inch, blue with color case hammer, grooved trigger and smooth wood grips with Charter medallions. Serial number is 1087XX. Not sure on the date of manufacture, but I started dating the gentleman's daughter in 1975 and I'm pretty sure he had it then.

[32 Magnum]

imashooter2,
Charter Arms switched barrel address from Bridgeport to Stratford CONN around s/n 315000 sometime in 1974. Your s/n falls roughly around the middle of the production period 1965 to 1974, so, I'd guess the production year to be somewhere in 1968-69, probably closer to early '69. The UNDERCOVERETTE was chambered in 6 shot, .32 S&W and .32 S&W LONG. It was "intended" or at least advertised as being suitable for women shooters and lady LEOs. This was back in the days when it was ASSUMED that females couldn't handle anything with a heavier recoil.???? I have an example that is thus chambered but not marked as the UNDERCOVERETTE. It has s/n 655471, made around 1983-83, so by that time, this name had been dropped. Catalogues from the period show the name was dropped by around the late '70s, early '80s.
IMG_3623_2.jpg

[32 Magnum]

[QUOTE=snakemaster7;1398194]Looks like my grip is a replacement then, seeing as it's not the smooth stained walnut from what I can tell. It does have the scroll medallions on it though.(*EDIT* upon further research, I see that it may infact be an original still, with the checkering on it. Saw a post by you on The High Road site, but maybe its a Bulldog grip seeing as I see a lot of those with this one on them)

Snake,
Those are the BULLDOG grips - factory original would have been the smooth small panels. Since the separate grip frame was the same for all the CAs, ANY grip from any model would fit on any other model. And any grip could be ordered from the factory. So... Nice pictures, by the way.

[32 Magnum]

I have a Charter Arms Undercover .38 with SN 38689X with the Stratford CONN address. I picked it for for dirt cheap at a gun store a few years ago, the finish it is perfect condition.

Coustain,
My data base implies that your piece, with s/n 38689x, was most likely made in late 1975 early '76. I still need some hard dates from that era to pin the DOMs down tighter. Nice picture.
Jim

[mcrider02]

I have a CA Undercover .32 SN 437XXX with Stratford address. Came with original grips but I spotted these Black Pearl grips and had to have them. Very clean gun that sat in a file drawer for over 30 years before I bought it. I think about 20 rounds have been fired through it. From reading the posts here I believe DOM was around 1976-77. Thanks for all the information on this site.

[32 Magnum]

mcrider - you're welcome and thanks for thanking.

Right now, I'm agreeing with your '76- '77 date - Serial number 500,000 was reached in/around August '79. Production looks to have been, on average 30K to 40K pieces per year, so ....