Charter Arms Off Duty, .38 Special, 2" Barrel, 5rd, DAO, Aluminum/Stainless

I chose this one as I found it one the lightest revolvers within the .38 caliber. I have a separate brand revolver, black in color, but I wanted to try out having a silver colored one, so I chose this one. I really like this one and am satisfied, for the price. The advertisement reads 12 oz, the booklet it came with from Charter Arms read 14 oz, but when I weighed it on my scale at home it was 13.37 oz, still a very light weight. Speed-loaders fit. The cylinder has a tight and clean fit onto the gun/frame, with little gap, and very little toggle or wiggle. As the handle/grip is short, I purchased a replacement grip, wooden, longer – which now allows for the pinky to grip, whole. The wood grip I bought is very smooth and would not snag, adding to the good utilization personal carry to me. Not a range gun per se, but for personal protection and concealment, it met my needs. Trigger – I like it, strong, sturdy, consistent. Not as smooth as some higher priced of same caliber, but it does the job and feels reliable. I dubbed it a “Jeep like” trigger. Ammunition – I have six different brands of .38 Special bullets. All of them fit this model, except for Hornady FTX, hallow point, Critical Defense, because the rim/back of the base casing is thicker, it will not allow the cylinder to close, and I fear could damage the gun if I were to try to force it shut. I have to extra careful not to carry or load this Hornady into this Charter Arms model. Some advertising and a vague note which came in the box case, refer to being able to use + P bullets, but I need to look that up to confirm, and I am not convinces yet that it can accept, so I will hold off, to reduce chance of damaging the gun, I can do without +P and it is not worth the risk. Trigger Guard – It feels like a strong metal, but there is a light grey rubber coating all around it. At first it looked cheap, but it is good strong quality, and feels good to the touch. I’m new to arms, and am trying to figure out why the builder placed the rubber coating on the guard. On the down side, rubber can snag onto clothing. On the plus side, when drawing and preparing to hold and shoot, the texture of the guard vs. the actual metal trigger differ, so the shooter can feel and sense where their finger is, when holding the gun with the finger off the trigger, vs finger on the trigger, which to me seemed like an interesting feature, and I wonder if that was what the maker had in mind, for safety’s sake. The Cylinder Latch – was the most concern for me; Mine was stiff, and I am not sure how to fix it myself. It is not stuck, it works, but requires a lot of force by one’s thumb. The sales worker thought it would loosen over time, I sure hope so. I oiled it. Awaiting if it improves. On the plus side, emergencies are rare, and having to reload after five shots in an emergency even more rare. If it persists I might ask my local gun store to try to repair it or send it back to Charter Arms for improvement on it. To open the latch, one pushes it forward, and because mine was on the tight side, I never had to worry about accidentally opening the cylinder. Overall, I am very satisfied with this one.