I would pick the Taurus. The Charter Arms guns are pretty sorry for the price. A used S&W would be a better choice here, those older guns are usually smooth as silk and you'll never lose money on one. This is given the choices outlined.

If she wants it for plinking I wouldn't bother with the magnum. The LR will be much cheaper to shoot for practice and loaded with Stingers or Mini Mags it will be just as deadly.

 

I bought a 4" Charter Pathfinder .22 WRM last Spring, and had problems which were well documented on this forum - and were eventually resolved by Charter's owner replacing my Maggie Pathfinder with a different but dual-cylinder gun, which was very acceptable.

I was intrigued, later this Summer by a 5" Taurus 941 .22 WRM, and so ordered one through an FFL/friend for $100 less than the one I was looking at.
It too, works well.

I like them both much better after I upgraded the sights on both with some daubs of BRIGHT SIGHTS paint.

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Wait is that a .22lr cylinder for your .22wmr pathfinder??? That would be neat if Charter Arms made a production DA .22 revolver with interchangeable cylinders.

 

... that will serve as a plinker and a future Self/home defense piece... QUOTE]

Fwiw, go to the Taurus forum and read all the sad stories about problems with the 94 revolvers. There is a lot of unhappiness with timing issues, light strikes in DA, heavy/gritty trigger, and cylinder freezes in DA from the internal lock. I've experienced all of that with our range rental. Taurus offers good support, but does not always seem able to fix them.

http://www.taurusarmed.net/forums

I'd recommend an older Smith 'kit gun', or their pre-lock model 63.

 

[Wait - is that a .22lr cylinder for your .22wmr pathfinder??? That would be neat if Charter Arms made a production DA .22 revolver with interchangeable cylinders.]

When the owner of Charter Arms replaced my original troublesome Pathfinder with this dual-cylinder gun in September, he told me that they plan to introduce a dual cylinder model like mine, soon - I'm thinking maybe by the end of this year, or at S.H.O.T. in January.

BTW - My revolver has a special serial number, of the type factories usually reserves for presentation guns, etc - as my serial number is two digits followed by all zeroes.

.

 

They gave you a proto-gun in return?! Wow! That's some kind of service. Maybe things are looking up for the Charter name? :bthumb:

 

Yeah - I'm pretty happy with the end result, if not with going through the "trials & tribulations" of warranty service X2 = 90 days.

The owner told me he was doing so because I exhibited calm & patience with them, and for my "inconvenience" - and he was embarassed that the normally 20-day warranty repair had taken so long.

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Taurus 941 vs Charter Pathfinder

Another option would be to find a used Pathfinder .22 lr with 3" barrel. I have one in stainless that I bought used in 1992. My guess is that it was made in the 80's. It shoots fine; nice smooth trigger pull. I've looked for a 3" .22 mag at gun shows for years, but no luck.

 

I've NEVER seen a used, old model, Charter Pathfinder - in either LR or WRM - anywhere, including gun shops and gun shows all over New England, since they were introduced.

That's why I was excited to buy a new generation Pathfinder last Spring, after they were introduced in 4" WRM - and my stimulus check arrived.

Either not that many oldies were made, or the folks that bought them new tend to hang onto them.

.

 

The older model Pathfinders are very nice guns... here are mine:

.22 WMR

.22 LR

 

Gents,

I have never seen a Pathfinder in person. I have seen some Taurus .22s, though.

Here is an older .22LR Pathfinder that just sold on GunBroker:

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.asp?Item=116964977

...it is, indeed, "very nice".

By the way, of all of the modern, current-production Taurus revolvers that I have handled, the most anoying feature is the short (too short for me) hammer spur. It is a bit uncomfortable to cock the hammer on these guns.

BigLoop22

 

I really liked the original Pathfinders made by Charter Arms and still kick myself for not buying one when I had the chance . I still see them for sale at gun shows, but are priced nearly at $300, and that for well used. If Chartco could make their Pathfinders the equal of their former selves, they'd have a winner.

Do have a CA.32 Magnum Police Target back then - that takes some sting out of it.

 

I started another thread about Charter Arms official introduction of Pete44ru ' s Pathfinder with the combo cylinders to the public, but one thing I forgot to ask is the DA trigger pull as heavy as the Taurus,and how is the accuracy ?

 

[I started another thread about Charter Arms official introduction of Pete44ru ' s Pathfinder with the combo cylinders to the public, but one thing I forgot to ask is the DA trigger pull as heavy as the Taurus,and how is the accuracy ?]

The pull on my Taurus is nice. Not great, as in S&W, but still nice.
The pull on my original Pathfinder, now replaced, was also "nice" - but had a hitch, or step/pause, near letoff.
The replacement Pathfinder doesn't exhibit the pause, but the trigger pull is heavier and a tad grittier.

The two targets, posted above, were shot @ 25yds, one with the LR cylinder, the other with WRM. You can judge the accuracy for yourself.

My Taurus shoots with about equal accuracy.

Both guns have sights that are the same color as the rest of the gun, which makes for poor sighting - but was easily resolved with both by a little judicious application of BRIGHT SIGHTS paint.

Both guns have rubber bumpers that suck, IMHO - YMMV.

These two guns are so close in these areas, that choosing between them would have to drill down to other aspects.
For instance -
The Taurus is much heavier than the Pathfinder.
The Charter cylinder is slightly easier/quicker to remove, but the crane is cruder.
The Taurus' S&W style sideplate makes working on the insides a whole bunch easier.

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