nope, it's not. I have a cool pair of matching single-shot Contenders that came down the family. One is stamped 45LC & the other is 410. Both are choked. Fun to shoot, but a single-shot isn't much for home defense. The Contender was legal for a few months when it first came out, but my understanding is they quickly pulled it from the market soon after it came out. They cited a "short barrel shotgun, or something to that effect. It was before my time, but that's what I heard from my dad. I don't know much else about them & don't shoot them much anymore.You say the Judge is not legal in CA?
I just picked up another option, and that's a Kimber barrel conversion for my full-size Springfield 1911 (9mm). Change out the slide & barrel and now you have a nice little target shooter that's good for working on technique without having to worry about the different feel of moving from one hand gun to another. Very cheap to play around with, but still has a little discipline involved with shooting.