Not a Smith but Interesting 357mag

[00Buck2]

Recently purchased this Ruger police service six 357. It is one of the smoothest double action only revolvers I have held, not shot it yet. It Looks to be older, seller had no information other than a family member that needed money several years ago. It says “Grandmaster” and “Clark” on the left side of the barrel in cursive and has a trigger stop integrated into the trigger guard. Along with a 4 position adjustable rear sight numbered 1-4.

I purchased this revolver thinking it was an older Clark Custom. Upon calling Clark Custom I spoke with salesman who advised all Clark Customs were engraved with the words “Clark Custom” somewhere on the barrel, this one only has Grandmaster and “Clark” in cursive engraved. He also advised I would have to call back tomorrow when the revolver gunsmith was in the office to confirm if it was a Clark Custom or not. He also advised there was a Clark manufacturer in California at one time but he had no info nor could I find any information on them.


Has anyone seen a Clark Custom like this?

Thanks in advance for your time for any input/information.

 

[burneyr]

I believe this will answer your question - Keithville, Louisiana on this identical revolver.

Congratulations!

Clark Custom "Grand Master" Ruger Police Service Six Revolver | Rock Island Auction

 

[Sevens]

Please know that when you do shoot this — it’s a full custom PPC build and as such, it’s quite likely to misfire with a lot of ammo. It might be accurate to guess that it’s going to misfire with MOST ammo.

Part of getting that absolutely jaw-dropping double action is that it makes great use of a lightened hammer spring.

PPC shooters mostly all made their own ammo and all of them used the Federal 100 small pistol primer. It’s literally the one primer that is easier to detonate than every other primer made. That hammer is set up to detonate a Federal 100 every time and it doesn’t hit any harder than that.

If you are a handloader, get Federal primers. If you are not a handloader, you have options:

1) accept that it’s likely to fail to fire one or two times out of every 6 that you load

2) swap the coil mainspring out for one that is full-spec

3) place a shim at the base of the spring, forcing it to hit a little harder

If you go the route of 2 or 3, you will notice that while the double action is still quite nice, it will NOT be what you’re enjoying now.

I have a few PPC guns and one of mine was also build on a Service Six. Mine is a Bill Davis custom. I toyed with making the hammer hit harder but eventually I just decided to feed it the Federal 100.

 

[AJ]

Shoot the revolver first. I have a old Behlert PPC revolver that is built on a K-Frame S&W. It shoots anything I put through it. Smooth like DAO, does not begin to describe the action. Maybe I am just lucky, but try it with several different kinds of ammo first.

 

[00Buck2]

I seen the listing from RIA and noticed it has “ Clark custom combat” on the right side of the barrel. Other than the engraving on the right side of the barrel it is identical

I do hand load but use primarily CCI Will have to try it out first then purchase some Federal primers if I get to may failure to ignite.

Thanks fo the info

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

I bought my 6" stainless Ruger Security Six in 1976, had too heavy a trigger pull. Replaced the factory spring with either Bullseye of Trapper springs, lighter, smoother pull and 100% reliable.

 

[swagmeister]

Had one exactly like it with the Clark Custom Logo on the barrel many years ago. Without the Clark logo on the side, I believe that it is a Ron Power Custom. I believe that he and Clark were the only two who built that particular revolver at the time. Mine shot everything, factory or reloads, with no problems. Foolishly sold it. I would hold onto that one. Thanks for showing.

 

[RetCapt]

Re: Misfires. Jim Clark came up with a simple, but elegant solution to misfires with some ammo caused by too light a main spring.

He developed a threaded main spring strut, on which a nut was situated to adjust spring tension. In the event of misfires, all the shooter had to do was remove the grips, remove the strut, then tighten up the nut to compress the spring however much needed to insure reliability regardless of ammo. It came as a complete assembly, including the spring, so installation had all the complexity of changing a light bulb.

I have this assembly on both of my PPC Rugers, my primary as well as my (never needed, thus still brand new) back up.

Perfect solution.

On the revolver, my recollection is that Ron Power and Jim Clark partnered up and developed the Grand Master kit which could be used on the basic revolver to create a PPC revolver. It was marketed as such. Given the talent of the co-developers, it was top quality.

 

[dobegrant]

Very nice looking revolver, I bet it will be a great shooter.

 

[00Buck2]

Thanks for the information. I was able to contact the revolver gunsmith at Clark Customs and he confirmed it was a Clark Custom 1980.

The action is slick as butter but double action only. He informed me that he had some security hammers still laying around and if I paid shipping both ways he would install a double/single action hammer for $50. Indicated it would be as smooth in double action as it is now with a crisp 2lb or less single action trigger.

Thoughts? Seems like a deal to me. Only reason I hesitated buying it in the first place was because it was DAO.

 

[Sevens]

In my opinion:

-- that's a nice deal for $50, but that low price is going to jack quite a bit higher unless you drive that sweet revolver there and back yourself. Shipping is not a horrendous deal if you have a good FFL that is happy to ship it for you, but shipping these days has gotten to be far more of a hassle

-- it will NOT be as good, as light or as silky smooth after he has done his install. I would absolutely bet some cash on this for at least a couple reasons and yes, the Clark of right now is not to the level of Clark 1980 in the opinion of many

-- I so very much prefer shooting double action, so it's a fine offer but for my own use, I would not

-- if you do take him up on this, please ensure he absolutely swears to return any/every/all parts he takes out

But it will still be very cool even if you choose to send it back to Clark.

 

[cherrypointmarine]

I too have a PPC revolver that'll eat anything . I don't know who built it , but he was a h*** of a gunsmith . The trigger is smooth as butter and its accuracy is top notch . I've let a couple of guys shoot it and they all come away with smiles and offers to buy it .

 

[SGT ROCK 11B]

Has anyone seen a Clark Custom like this?

Thanks in advance for your time for any input/information.

Its a PPC gun. Usually they were built on S&W frames but I have seen Colts and Rugers too.

It will have great accuracy out to fifty yards and it should be built around the .38 Special 148 grain Match Wadcutter.

 

[SGT ROCK 11B]

I too have a PPC revolver that'll eat anything . I don't know who built it , but he was a h*** of a gunsmith . The trigger is smooth as butter and its accuracy is top notch . I've let a couple of guys shoot it and they all come away with smiles and offers to buy it .

Now that is a nice build. I am guessing its a Model 64? Or maybe a hard chromed Model 10.

 

[Sevens]

I too have a PPC revolver that'll eat anything . I don't know who built it , but he was a h*** of a gunsmith . The trigger is smooth as butter and its accuracy is top notch . I've let a couple of guys shoot it and they all come away with smiles and offers to buy it .

It has SOME hallmarks of a Bill Davis gun but I can't say for sure with the one single picture and even with more it's hard to be sure. The left side adjustable front sight and those grips are both Davis hallmarks -- thing is, I know for sure he sold those grips to anyone who wanted them and there's a fine chance he also sold the top rib with that front sight.

The barrel profile looks like a Davis... but he may have sold just the barrel also, for another craftsman to build with.

Davis would often shave the bottom of the cylinder release -- not a lot, but visually obvious. But he did not do it all the time. And it appears stock on yours.

Davis usually had an overtravel stop on the trigger like yours shows. But his trigger was also typically polished on 100% of the exterior, to a mirror shine and I'm not sure yours looks like that.

Davis PPC gun hammers were almost always polished the same way, to a complete mirror shine, and yours looks nothing like that. I have also seen a lot of Davis guns with the hammer spur still on, which was not typical for the lion's share of PPC guns, but some did them.

I can say with certainty that yours is not a Travis Strahan build. I have two of those and Strahan has some hallmarks that I believe he always did and I never see his PPC builds without them, and yours does not show them. I realize that this kind of process of elimination is futile but there it is anyway.

Bill Davis would be a solid guess on yours, but that hammer is the biggest flag arguing otherwise... and the hammer of a PPC build is a big deal, it's very unlikely some previous owner would swap the hammer out for any reason.

I am no expert, but these are things that I think I think!

 

[cherrypointmarine]

Sevens , you're very often right . And Sarge , you're right , it's built on a m10 . It's not a PC gun , so I'm not worried about it's pedigree , I just enjoy shooting it .

 

[Kanewpadle]

Thanks for the information. I was able to contact the revolver gunsmith at Clark Customs and he confirmed it was a Clark Custom 1980.

The action is slick as butter but double action only. He informed me that he had some security hammers still laying around and if I paid shipping both ways he would install a double/single action hammer for $50. Indicated it would be as smooth in double action as it is now with a crisp 2lb or less single action trigger.

Thoughts? Seems like a deal to me. Only reason I hesitated buying it in the first place was because it was DAO.

Do it. You only live once.

Besides, you’re among very few that will ever hold one of those let alone shoot it.

 

[HOUSTON RICK]

No doubt Ruger makes good guns, and you do not have to take out a mortgage to buy one.

 

[BigMuddy]

Definitely a Ron Power gun. He did work closely with Jimmy Clark, they were good friends.

Here’s a link to an article on Ron’s “last” Grand Master Delux.

Just a moment...

Power Custom is still very much in business but Ron has retired from doing gun work. In 2009 he built my “dream gun”. It is a Ruger FT 44 Special with the first #5 grip frame he produced.

I have to say one of my greatest days happened when Ron brought me an army ammo can full of various factory 44 Magnum loads and a 5” Grand Master Deluxe Ruger Redhawk. He wanted me to find the most accurate load and sight the gun for it so he could use it to deer hunt that year. He said it was the only 5” he’d ever built. What a thrill and what a gun.

Dan

 

[swagmeister]

I have been a customer with Clark's for 50+ years, going back to when they were in the log cabin in Keithville, Louisiana (saw Bill Jordan in there one day visiting with Clark, Sr). I even own a Clark Sr. personal Colt revolver and a Clark, Jr. Smith Model 14 revolver. True, both of the Clarks are gone and some of the old time gunsmiths also but the revolver gunsmith they have now, whose name is Clay, is one of the best in the business. He has done numerous jobs for me and the work he does and his word are top shelf; if he tells you what he is going to do, how long it will take, and what it will cost, that is what will happen-no surprises. If you decide to send your gun in to him, there will be no worries. Good luck.