Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Smarter Arms 44 Bulldog

My Charter Arms .44 Bulldog originally looked like the bore interior had been sandblasted as a final finishing touch, and the rifling was shallower on one side than the other. So, I cut down a discarded S&W 696 barrel, installed it and re-contoured the frame some to match:



You’ve heard of a “Smolt,” with a Python barrel installed on a Smith & Wesson K-frame, right? Well then, this must be a “Smarter Arms.”

The configuration was inspired by my great grandfather’s H&R American D.A. .44 Webley:



… which had been behind the bar of his Silver Dollar Wine Room in San Francisco during the 1906 earthquake and fire:



Check out those silver dollars embedded in the floor tiles. That’s him behind the bar on the left, with the beard and wearing the Fez.

Most interesting. That bar sure looks like the place to just stand up and knock them back. When did barstools come around? How does the little beastie shoot?

Well, the Smarter Arms .44 shoots a bit high; the front sight used to be on a Blackhawk. I’ll need to make a taller front sight or use lighter cast bullets. It’s also not as easy to shoot well compared to the S&W 696 which donated the barrel:



I had S&W replace the barrel due to a forcing cone problem, which left the old barrel available to go on the Bulldog.

" It’s also not as easy to shoot well compared to the S&W 696..."

Yeah, but it's got a low down badmax metal thing going on.