Charter Arms has gone through a number of periods of extremely rough economic situations. There have been very good ones and very bad ones from every generation of the company. If you want to buy one you need to know how to check out a revolver or take someone with you who does. Buying a Charter is a lot like buying a used car. You need to crawl under it with a flashlight and know what you're looking at.
The current ones are supposed to be made with much better quality control but I have no personal experience with the new ones. I do have one from 1987 that has been perfect and is still going today. I guess I got lucky. They are a great design that should have been picked up by one of the major manufacturers. The designer worked for Ruger and when he could not get them interested in building it he left and started Charter Arms. Ruger dropped the ball on that one.