Clark Custom Guns

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Hello everyone,

Does anybody have experience dealing with Clark Custom Guns in Louisiana? I purchased and, after about a year wait, received, one of their barrels for my Model 41. It did not fit the gun so I sent it back to them and they had their “41 specialist” work on it. I spoke with him and he explained that he got the barrel to fit and that he needed to “tune” the extractor, for an added fee, as it would not eject the spent case reliably. After a very quick turnaround I got my gun back but to my disappointment the gun will not reliably function with their barrel installed, instead, misfiring and not ejecting the spent case. With the stock barrel on it the gun works just fine of course. I’ve sent them 3 emails about it for the past month but they are ignoring me. Not good. I’ve got a very expensive paperweight on my hands it seems. 
Any shooters here have experience with them, or know someone there that will help? Thanks in advance. 

Disappointed bullseye shooter,

505er

That's terrible news about Clarks.  I think I own several guns that were done by Clarks.  I really treasure them.  I remember reading about Jim Sr's exploits and innovations .  He was a real pioneer in custom pistolsmithing and one of the first civilian to win Camp Perry.  Evedently he bought a whole barrel of flame cut 1911 slides and used them to make his first long slide guns.  I still have a Ruger Security Six Heavy Barrel with a slab side Douglas XX and an UltraDot that is a blast to shoot.  I am at a loss tp think that they would squander a sterling reputation but I have seen the same thing happen in my real world life as a musician in the violin world where multi generational shops such as Hill and Sons in London and Monneigs in Philadelphia just dry up and blow away.  We are talking about sometimes hundreds of years of skills and tradition and instruments worth into tens of millions of dollars.  Go figure.

DLB

Sadly I hear these experiences echoed all over about present day Clark's, It even started changing after Sr. passed and Jr. took over and after Jr. passed it's sounds like nothing good, Lead times 3 years out, does what they want not what the customer wanted. JC Sr. was a meticulous record keeper and had records of every one he built, ask today and they hang up. I do Treasure mine as a piece of Bullseye history.

Just bought and received a new 1-10 twist barrel/bushing from them for my S&W Model 52-2. Local smith fitted, and is awesome.
Point being- if you need any parts from Clark, oughta get them now.

Smith Mod. 41 sent back to CCG a second time to get it right. Hope it’s good to go when I get it back.

505er

I really do not want to make anyone upset here.  I had been a long time customer of CCG going back to the time of Jim Senior and I am a serial customer S&W owning. many of their revolvers, especially models 17, and 14.  It seems that the Model 41 has been or can be a problem child as far as reliable functioning goes.  It's the one gun I have never owned of theirs.  A simple .22 blow back target pistol just shouldn't be that hard to tune up, but there you are.

DLB

I agree. I have had a few revolvers worked on by Clark's and bought a couple of their 10-22 competition rifles and I have never had an issue with their work or their products. That's my experience with them.

Glad I got my money back ($500) deposit on SSR

About 25 years ago, a shooting buddy of mine got a 5" Model 41 barrel from Clark.  He had all sorts of issues with it.  I think it was mostly extraction problems, but he may have had some feeding issues as well.  I measured the chamber, and it was very tight.  I lapped it out to be closer to S&W spec, and that fixed it.  My friend passed away several years ago, and I helped his widow find a good home for all his shooting stuff.  A guy on my club team has the pistol now, and it still shoots just fine.

Dave Salyer, did a few model 41's for me and they are excellent.
Great price and turnaround as well

I don't have any experience with Clark. I ended up sending my 1978 41 to David Sams in Virginia on the advice of someone on this board. The 41 is a tricky pistol, and if you ask, David will go into detail about exactly why. Anyway, he relined my 41, resurfaced the breech face, and turned a paperweight into a flawless shooter. It took a few months, but it was worth the wait.

Stewboy wrote:I don't have any experience with Clark. I ended up sending my 1978 41 to David Sams in Virginia on the advice of someone on this board. The 41 is a tricky pistol, and if you ask, David will go into detail about exactly why. Anyway, he relined my 41, resurfaced the breech face, and turned a paperweight into a flawless shooter. It took a few months, but it was worth the wait.

I did the same with my 2020 model, only to Alex Hamilton / Ten Ring.  He did trigger job and relined the factory 7" barrel because it was drilled at an angle (!).  The gun looks nice and works - both with the relined 7" and a Clark 5", but I rarely shoot it because my 208s is much better and more reliable, IMO.