A friend showed me an older Charter Arms Bulldog and he didn’t spot it but the cylinder release was missing. I have never seen this of course you can release the cylinder by pulling the cylinder rod from the front.
I never really thought about it but as I look at the gun and schematic I am trying to figure out if the gun is safe to fire without it. It seems to me that is just a release and has nothing to do with the lock up.

I assume someone here would have practical knowledge of this

Please fill me in
Thanks Hank

I have a few .44 Bulldogs, and I believe you are correct. The cylinder latch thumb piece is simply there to permit the operation of the latch. If the internals to the latch are still there, it should still serve its function.

Thank You
I will be at my local smith to see if he has the parts around or we will get them ordered

I was just curious
I was told this was a relatives truck gun and I wonder if he just used it like that

But he is gone I can’t ask him

Hank

I've had several Charters over the years and have, occasionally, needed a few parts. I just called Charter, shot the breeze with them for a few minutes and told them what I needed. In every case they shipped the parts at no charge.

Give 'em a call, Hank. As I recall the cylinder release mechanism on those consists of the latch, screw, a spring and a plunger.

I had a .38 Undercover for awhile, and just used the ejection rod to open the cylinder, it was more convenient for me (and it was like the old High Standard Double Nine .22 revolver I grew up with). It was no big deal, and a heckuva lot easier to deal with than a Smith whose ejection rod had backed out (that used to happen a lot back then). I considered it a good feature.