Range officer versus 70s vintage clark long slide

I purchased a used clark long slide when I got back into shooting last year. It is roughly late 70s vintage and rattles when you shake it. It will shoot master scores and do it consistently if the shooter is capable. I love everything about the gun but for an excuse to buy another 1911, I went looking for a back up gun.

I picked up a Range officer based on positive comments on the forums. Not being an iron sight shooter, I had a scope mount put on it by Don Weber (he has a nice scope mount that doesn't require drilling a bunch of holes) and also had him work on the trigger a bit. I liked the original feel of the trigger, just needed the weight brought down. Being a back-up gun, I used a bushnell scope instead of a matchdot to save some money.

Last week I shot it right along side of my clark. I shot slow with the RO, then slow with the clark, and so on through the NMC. I wanted as close of a comparison as I could and I also wanted a real comparison (off hand as opposed to a ransom rest).

With the range officer I shot a 284 and with the clark I shot a 282. Not master level scores on that test, but a few more times out with it and I am sure I will be shooting it at true master score level.

So, for those of you who want to get an accurate and affordable 45, consider the Range Officer from Springfield Arms - so far it was money well spent for me.

Chris D
www.2700-270x.com

The RO would be on my short list to own . Other than the trigger job to lower the weight - you shot a 284 out of the box with scope which ain't too shabby. Are there any other mods you are looking to do to the RO to achieve even higher scores ?

At this point in time, I see no reason to further modify a gun which already shows it is capable of shooting Master level scores. I have since shot it again and shot a 289 and a 288 with it. I may reduce the main spring weight to help with cycling the low power loads but that is for reliability, not accuracy.

Chris

Chris_D : What ammuniton / loads did you conduct your test comparison with ?

I was shooting 185 gn lswc with 3.9 of bullseye.

Chris

I put My RO on ransom yesterday 50 yards under 2" 5 shot group with 3.8 of BE 200 g SWC only thing done to it is trigger job

Thank you guys for these data points.  I have a stock Springfield Loaded model that I shoot a lot.  It groups very tightly as well.  It will hold the 10 ring at 50 from sandbags. 

A shooter doesn't always have to spend a lot to get into the sport.

I picked up a Range Officer recently.  Very impressive.  I'll eventually have Roddy tweak the trigger and tap the slide for a dot mount.  It is not bad as I held the black at 50 offhand.

I had Roddy work my RO last year. He did the trigger, dot mount, tightened the lockup & rails a bit & fitted a bushing. The test targets he gave me with the gun were under 1 1/2" & he shot those off sandbags (with the stock barrel.)

Chris:

Send it to Clark for a tune up and it will shoot like new.

Dave C.