Clark Custom Guns

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

505er wrote: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

Sadly. In the past clark custom was top notch. I think a better investment is reline the original 41 barrel.

I tend to suggest those BE smith who shoot BE.
Clark has moved on to the action guys.

We have several forum smiths who might fix your problem.

My Clark .38 Special Heavy Slide that I had built in 1984, has always worked flawlessly.  The .45 Heavy Slide I had built in 1998, not so much. Had to send it back twice.  It's now a backup pistol and not my go-to .45.

My 41 has a 5" Clark barrel that was purchased used and may be from the old days.  I also have the somewhat original 7" (somewhat because it has new barrel liner / chamber by Ten Ring).  It malfunctions with some frequency with either barrel (FTF, FTE, etc) both with CCI SV and Aguila. I get rare fails with Aguila in my 208s, FWIW.

Anyway you might try different ammo with the new barrel, especially Aguila.

Does the chamber pass the "plop test"? or you need to brush the chamber.

I plan to stop by there tomorrow,  have been a lot of changes in personnel  iin the last year but will ask and try to get some information that may help you.

Sg1911 wrote:I plan to stop by there tomorrow,  have been a lot of changes in personnel  iin the last year but will ask and try to get some information that may help you.

Are there any Clark's still working there?

I was recently told the business was still family owned but none of the Clark family were working there now.

I purchased a 5” barrel for my 41 a couple of years ago, only a few weeks wait and it fit with a little file work. (Note: I am a gunsmith so the fitting was no biggie). They were up front about the possibility that the extractor would not line up but it was no problem. I am very pleased with the barrel, accurate and reliable plus they were great guys to work with. 
I am sorry to hear that others are having issues with them.

505er wrote: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

I talked with the showroom manager today.  I told him about the non answered emails and he told me that Jess and Logan Clark were the the only ones with the password to one of the email accounts. Neither are working there.  This is the information email account and possibly the reason for no response.  You can call Monday, Tuesday, Thursday or Friday,  They don’t take outside calls on Wednesday.  The number is 318-949-9984.  If you want to pm me your contact information I will pass it along to the manager and he will try to contact you.

Thank you everyone for the responses, and thank YOU! Sg1911, for looking into the company I’ll give em a ring. Maybe the thing needs breaking in like a lot of barrels…

I don't have any experience with Clark, but I will say that the great David Sams in Virginia was recommended to me by several people, and I'm glad I took their advice where my '79 model 41 was concerned. Because he's busy (a very good sign), it took several months, but everything he did was top notch. Mine went from being a paperweight to an utterly reliable shooter. The thing just will not quit. 

I've heard great things about Clark too, but Sams is the only one I can vouch for from personal experience.

Clark installed a Clark barrel on my Kimber and I shoot their 5" M41 upper. I am happy with both.

About two years ago I sent my Sig 1911 to be accurized and a rail put on. Told I was one of the last that they would do. 
Very happy with the work, sorry they don't serve the Bullseye group anymore.

I've got a Ruger MKII with the full Clark treatment.  It's perfect and incredibly accurate.  It's the wife's toy so it sees very little use unfortunately.
But, regarding your issue, since they had the complete firearm, and you're still having issues, I would ask for a full refund.  The barrel won't magically break in by shooting more ammo through it.  Like others recommended send it to David Sams or Alex Hamilton, both know how to do barrel liners and tuning on that pistol.

I have inherited a 1970 colt series 70 .45acp turned into a 6 inch wadgun by Jim Clark senior in 1974, present day Clark custom guns refuses to provide ANY info they may have on said pistol, they only offer an "updating" service, that costs about as much as a new pistol and they won't tell you what they update and can take as much as 2 years. I guess I will just keep the old POS that will only hold about an 1 1/2 at 50 yards , each target is a different load with the specs written in pencil on the back of each target in Jim sr's handwriting.

Cmysix wrote:I have inherited a 1970 colt series 70 .45acp turned into a 6 inch wadgun by Jim Clark senior in 1974, present day Clark custom guns refuses to provide ANY info they may have on said pistol, they only offer an "updating" service, that costs about as much as a new pistol and they won't tell you what they update and can take as much as 2 years. I guess I will just keep the old POS that will only hold about an 1 1/2 at 50 yards , each target is a different load with the specs written in pencil on the back of each target in Jim sr's handwriting.

Two things:

1. I doubt they have records going back to 1974. It wasn't so convenient in those days to do so.
2. If the gun, a .45 shoots 1.5" @50 consistently, why would you want to mess with it?

Bonus 3rd thing. I don't think there are any Clark's there anymore. That is tragic. After Jim, then Jim Jr. Jes was always good for my needs. They were damn good at reasonable prices. Things change....

Call down there and ask to speak to Logan. He's one of the Clark brothers who owns the place. Explain to him what the problem is and he will see that it is taken care of.  Manny.

I ordered a SSR Revolver in December 2022, ($1900) called and talked to George numerous times checking on progress and sent a LPA rear sight for the build. Fast forward to November 2023 I called to checked on progress and was offered a refund of my $500 deposit due to their Expired FFL I checked with ATF and the FFL had expired in August. My E-mails were never answered during the 11 months even when offering to pay the gun in full. I received the refund and rear sight within a week........ End of dealing with CCG

One of the guys at the club earlier this year made a visit there and came back with news Clark was only doing High Standard work for now

SingleActionAndrew wrote:One of the guys at the club earlier this year made a visit there and came back with news Clark was only doing High Standard work for now

Now that could be an answer to another posters question!

elfusaro wrote:Call down there and ask to speak to Logan. He's one of the Clark brothers who owns the place. Explain to him what the problem is and he will see that it is taken care of.  Manny.

Well Manny, Logan "walked away from the business" according to George, who answers the phones. No luck with the Clark barrel. I spoke with Paul on the phone and he suggested a few things; I tried 'em, didn't work. Gun still malfunctions. Fires one round, the first, and that's it. With the stock barrel on the 41 it's smooth as silk and dead on. I'm at a loss. Hope I can get some of my money back. Thanks for the replies everyone.

Eric

Clark Custom Guns, like America, is not what it used to be.