Clark 38 Long Slide Question

Greetings,

A friend showed up to Monday Practice with a Clark 38 Long Slide, the one with the short rib.

Being a used gun with unknown history, we would like to start fresh.

We would like to know some details about the recoil spring.

I wrote to Wolff and they had no information and Clark was no help either. Wolff suggested I visit the "Web".

We will be shooting Commercial ammo, so we need the dimensions of a spring that originally shipped with the pistol.

Need the following data...

• Free Length of the spring. (Spring laid on the bench, out of the gun.)
  
• The number of coils.
  
• The diameter of the wire (0.039", 0.041", 0.043", etc)
  

Any help will be appreciated.

Cheers,

Dave

Tough one Dave. Most of the Clark .38 specials I see are very tired pistols. I've seen most of them with 5" gov't springs that are probably original. Wolff does make a longslide calibration pack of springs.
Also dependent on the pistol it probably has an accuracy tuner, so depending on how tight it is setup for lockup has large effect on spring weight. My recommendation is to take several springs to range and trial by error method of spring selection. I know this isn't really what your asking
Jon

I have to agree with Jon.  Most long slides require trial and error to get them to work and it also depends on what kind of load you are shooting in them.  I have a Clark .38 Special Heavy Slide.  With 2.7 grains of Bullseye and a 148 HBWC, I have finally settled on a 7 pound Wolff spring to get it to function reliably.  I had Clark do the conversion back in 1982.  The gun is still tight.  I had a new bushing installed a few years ago and it will still group at an inch and a half at 50 yards out of a Ransom Rest.

WHY NOT JUST USE 2 RECOIL GUIDE ROD PLUGS STACKED UP AND A STANDARD 5" RECOIL SPRING BOUGHT IN THE CORRECT WEIGHT. I'VE SEEN SEVERAL 6" GUNS SET UP THIS WAY. JP

JIMPGOV wrote:WHY NOT JUST USE 2 RECOIL GUIDE ROD PLUGS STACKED UP AND A STANDARD 5" RECOIL SPRING BOUGHT IN THE CORRECT WEIGHT. I'VE SEEN SEVERAL 6" GUNS SET UP THIS WAY. JP

I did that for a while in my 45 long slide.  Then I found out Caspian makes a special plug for 6" guns. It has a shoulder inside that lets you use a spring for a 5" gun. Look on page 13 of their catalog part #s22h6c.

I just use a std ISMI 14 lb spring in my Clark longslide 45.  It originally came with a cut std spring. Works fine without any special plug.

On the 38 you might try the longslide spring Wolff makes. It's a thin wire LONG spring that is design to be cut to whatever length works

An older retired shooter has a Clark .38 here locally. Reading this post about they're used condition makes me feel better to let it pass.

You know if its the 2 pc sleeved barrel they can be made to shoot excellent. I love the 1911 .38's and once you get them tuned they shoot outstanding. I'm building myself a new one now
Jon

Greetings Jon,

Yes, it is a one piece blank turned down and inserted into a cutoff piece of barrel. You can see the part line as viewed from the breech.

Cheers,

Dave

10 Twist...

L Valdez wrote:An older retired shooter has a Clark .38 here locally. Reading this post about they're used condition makes me feel better to let it pass.

Don't let this conversation scare you. It's not complicated to do. Just read it again and note the suggestions  aren't complicated. AND these guns are really accurate and fun to shoot. They seem to hold their accuracy longer than .45's. Of course the $ must be reasonable and I would advise shooting Master scores w/ the .45 before using the .38.

If that didn't confuse you ask me something else and I'll try again!!

Ron Habegger