The Bulldog Boomer is Charter's answer to the snub-nose .44 Special carry problem: shave the frame down to aluminum, bob the hammer for DAO operation, port the tapered 2" barrel to tame muzzle rise, and delete the front sight in favor of a flat top strap with a receiver channel rear. Twenty ounces, five rounds of .44 Spl, $443 MSRP. It exists for one job — pocket and ankle carry where the steel Bulldog 2.5"'s 21 oz steel frame still feels like too much.

The Boomer is one of the closest current-production analogs to the discontinued S&W 296, which used a scandium frame and titanium cylinder to hit 18.9 oz from 1999 to 2001. The 296 is a collector item now; the Boomer is what you can actually buy. Both run DAO, both target deep concealment, both ask the shooter to accept brutal recoil in exchange for .44 caliber in a pocketable package. At 22 oz, the Taurus 445 Ultra-Lite is the other comparable aluminum-frame option but trades the bobbed-hammer DAO concept for a conventional DA/SA.

The surprising weakness is the sights. Charter deletes the front sight blade entirely and relies on a milled receiver channel as the rear. The argument is that point-shooting distances are all this gun is for, but at any range past arm's length the lack of a front reference makes deliberate shot placement difficult. Owners who shoot the Boomer past 7 yards usually report adding a paint-pen dot or epoxying on a fiber-optic blade. A pocket .44 with no front sight is a serious design choice — buyers should test it before committing.