I spent all day Friday working on revolver trigger jobs. I mentioned the S&W J-Frame last week. On Friday the day was spent working on a Taurus Hammerless and a Charter Arms UC Lite. While I have been familiar with Taurus for a long time, I have never owned a Charter, and this was my first time to do a trigger job for one.
While they are comparable in price (cheaper than a S&W), the similarities end there. The Charter came to me with very rough factory pull. It needed a lot of work on the inside, and parts are not readily available for modifications. One weakness with the charter system is that it uses pins and screws in the frame instead of a traditional 3 screw configuration to hold the side plate on the revolver. In fact one of these pins had started working out of the revolver when it arrived at the shop.
The Taurus is similar in design to the S&W J-Frame. It has some slight differences, but overall they could be considered cousins. The parts on the inside were in terrible shape, but you can definitely tell a difference in the manufacturing from a Smith. It’s close, but not quite on par.
Either of these guns will prove acceptable. The Taurus is most like a Smith and has that feel if you are looking for a cheaper version of the Smith. It also comes with that notable lifetime warranty. The Charter comes in several colors and is very lightweight.
If I had to rank my preference for a small revolver it would go like this; S&W, Taurus, and Charter.
The hammerless Taurus is my wife’s and the Charter is my daughter’s. I retrieved both from MCC Saturday morning and headed to the range for a test drive before putting them back in the hands of my loved ones.
Eager to have her Taurus back in service, my wife was over halfway through a box of 158 grain Blazer LRN before I could get my safety glasses on.
When I looked up there was a thin vertical line of perforations from the silhouette’s larynx to his solar plexus (warning to you bad guys). Granted, the Model 85 is equipped with a Crimson Trace, but that’s still good shootin’ with a double action revolver.
What we learned was that the MCC trigger job was so smooth, the usual shaking and twitching associated with a DAO shot was gone! She was on target through the complete trigger pull.
Her confidence bolstered, she decided to show off a little. She was shooting at, and hitting, the numbers on the 7, 8 and 9 rings. Not the rings, the numbers printed on the target!
Then she laid her weapon down, smiled, and said “That’s all.”
I picked it up, loaded the last five rounds from the box, took off one of Mr. Silhouette’s muttonchops, put one between the eyes, one in each nostril, and one in his pie hole in rapid succession.
The Charter was turned over to MCC because of the scraping trigger and grinding hammer. Like fingernails on a blackboard.
Upon its return, although the trigger pull didn’t seem much lighter, all the scraping and grinding was gone, making a clean break in single action.
Some time ago, I discovered the technique of shooting double action by taking the hammer back almost to the break point, aiming, and then finishing the trigger pull. This technique seems especially effective with my girls who have the arm strength of Olive Oyl. It’s not fast, but it is efficient.
Shooting the Charter double action was smooth and on target. What more can I ask? There’s nothing I like better in shooting than seeing the Shoot-N-C bullseye with a bright yellow dot after each shot.
Money well spent? You bet. I just hope MCC holds my check until the end of the month.
Thanks for the comments SAM. As mentioned before, there is a design issue with Charter that will allow only so much tweaking of the trigger pull weight. It can however, be cleaned up nicely as SAM mentioned.