Wheelgun Wednesday: Charter Arms Professional III .357 Magnum 6-Shot

We are back at it again in this week’s edition of Wheelgun Wednesday cruising our way through the Charter Arms “Professional Series” of revolvers. If you haven’t heard of them, it is almost an insider, industry secret that this small collective of snub-nose revolvers exists. Charter Arms has 6 revolvers in this semi-coveted series chambered in either the curious .32 H&R Magnum as well as the venerable .357 Magnum round. The past 2 weeks we covered the Professional and Professional II. If my public school education math is correct, that will now bring us to the Professional III which happens to be a .38 Special/.357 Magnum wheelgun. Let’s dive in and see what makes the Charter Arms Professional III unique from the rest of its counterparts in the Professional Series.

Wheelgun Wednesday @ TFB

• Wheelgun Wednesday: Charter Arms Professional II .357 Mag/.38 SPL
• Wheelgun Wednesday: Charter Arms Professional .32 H&R Mag 7-Shot
• Wheelgun Wednesday: The Rare, Budget-Minded Manurhin MR93
• Booligan’s Taurus Ultra Snubby Handgun – TUSH
• Throwing It Back With The Ruger Service Six
• Smith & Wesson Texas Rangers Bicentennial Revolver

If you have been following along this curious revolver journey that we are on, it feels like a fun side-quest in a video game, honestly (we’re astray from our path, but we’re not mad about it). Both the Professional and Professional II were pretty scant on details, and while the Professional III is as well, we do have a few more important nuggets of information we have been able to scrounge up from distributors like Lipsey’s. All of the information, specs, and deets we could uncover are listed below:

• SKU: CH63546 | UPC: 678958635461
• Family: The Professional Series
• Model: Professional III
• Action: Double-Action (DA) | Single Action (SA)
• Cartridge: .38 Special / .357 Magnum
• Finish: Applied Black Black Nitride+™ Finish
• Frame: Stainless Steel, Black Nitride+™ Finish
• Grips: Walnut Contoured, Finger-Grooved Grip
• Barrel: 4.2″ Steel, Full Underlug, Black Nitride+™ Finish
• Overall Length: 7 13/16″ (7.8125″)
• Cylinder: 6 Rounds | Stainless Steel, Black Nitride+™ Finish
• Sights: Green LitePipe™ Fiber Optic Front & Fully Adjustable Rear
• Trigger Pull: Double-Action – 10 Lb, 3.1 Oz | Single-Action – 2 Lb, 15.1 Oz
• Hammer: Standard, Exposed
• Weight: 22 Oz.

So, we need to answer the elephant in the room: how is this model different from prior iterations?… For one, this is the longest barrel we have seen offered yet through the Professional Series. Both the Professional and Professional II had 3″ steel barrels and the Professional III dons a 4.2″ steel barrel. Additionally, in all of the info I could find on this revolver, it is marketed as having a “fully adjustable rear sight.” I was only able to source one legitimate photo of the Professional III which makes it difficult to verify if there is actually a fully adjustable rear sight. With the single photo we have to go off of, I would have to gamble and state some of Charter Arms’ marketing copy is incorrect, and that the Professional III has the same Integral Grooved Notch Rear Sight as the Professional and Professional II had.

Something else we were able to pull for the Charter Arms Professional III is trigger pull weights. Since we don’t have this info for the Professional and Professional II, we don’t know if the Professional III is better, worse, or the exact same?… By simply reading the numbers, the double-action pull looks a touch lighter than a typical 12 Lb pull and the single-action trigger pull weight is slightly heavier than a real crisp 2 Lb single-action pull seen in competing revolvers. Having never dry-fired or shot the Charter Arms Professional III, I can’t anecdotally state whether those 10.2 Lb and 2.94 Lb trigger pulls are smooth or not.

An element that Charter Arms has been super consistent on is their Black Nitride+™ Finish. In photos, it looks visually appealing, but I would be interested to see how it fares against the humidity and sweat from everyday carry (EDC). That’s typically a good bar to measure the durability of a firearm’s finish by.

It would be nice if Charter Arms had more photos, specs, or details available to us, but this is all that we have at the moment. Like, I have stated in prior Wheelgun Wednesdays, I consider myself to be pretty in tune with the revolver market and I had no clue these Professional Series revolvers existed until roughly 1 month ago.

In the coming weeks, we will slowly walk our way down the line of all 6 of Charter Arms’ Professional revolvers so you can see how this unadvertised lineup stacks up to some of the big dogs in the industry or other favorites you might already own. Between all 6 of The Professional revolvers that Charter Arms is crafting, you have the option of a .32 H&R Magnum or .357 Magnum for cartridge offerings. Both of these are stout rounds for defense depending on if you want to go big or small. Until we meet again next week, what do you think? Does this “Professional” series look interesting to you? Enough so that you’d be willing to purchase and carry one? As always, let us know all of your thoughts in the Comments below! We always appreciate your feedback.