bompa Posted November 12, 2004 Share Posted November 12, 2004 Have always been courious about a 38 special 1911..Know that Colt made a few quite a while ago and it was never popular..Well it is something I would to play with,sort of a winter project..Does anyone have any idea where I might find an inexpensive,read cheap,barrell ?? Might never get off the ground so don't want to put much into it..Any help would be appreciated.. Thanks people.. Henry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ranger Posted November 12, 2004 Share Posted November 12, 2004 Suggest you contact Clark gunsmithing in LA. This shop was very experienced in this type of conversion back when Bullseye was more popular. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SRT Driver Posted November 12, 2004 Share Posted November 12, 2004 You might find a Colt barrel but the expensive parts are the mags. Clark owns the tooling to make the .38 Spl singlestack mags, or so I've heard. I think they are abt $75 ea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Too_Slow Posted November 12, 2004 Share Posted November 12, 2004 I have a friend that has one of the original ones. One of the things that you have to remember is that this is a wadcutter gun only. The bullet is loaded so that it ends at the end of the case. Other wise they will not fit into the magazine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick Sweeney Posted November 12, 2004 Share Posted November 12, 2004 Problems abound. You aren't going to just drop in a .38 Special barrel and go to it. The .38 barrels as made by Colt fit special slides, lacking locking lugs. The barrels are made so they won't even fit a standard 1911 frame. The Clark conversion involves re-building a .38 Super (at least originally, they may do it to .45s now) into a .38 wadcutter gun. the last Clark conversion I worked on, I was able to rebuild it so the owner could swap barrels, springs, guide rods and magazines back and forth between .38 Super and .38 Special. As a curiosity, it is neat. As a competition gun (apologies to Bullseye shooters) it sucks. The few I've had a chance to shoot were only casually accurate by IPSC standards. (Ransom rest, factory match wadcutter ammo, 2+ inches at 25 yards) The recoil is unnecessarily harsh. You're shooting a 107PF blowback pistol, and you can tell. A locked-breech .38 Super running at 130 PF is softer in recoil. The magazines hold five rounds, and are expensive as hell. And the guns can be very, very picky aobut what they will run with and work reliably with. As a gunsmithing/design exercise, the .38 Wadcutter gun is a miracle. As a competition gun, forget it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kingman Posted November 12, 2004 Share Posted November 12, 2004 If you really want one buy a clark gun. I shot some with 158wc's at about 700 fps and it was a tack driver. Only running about 2.5grains of bullseye powder. I shoot the same load in my model 52's. Yes I used to shoot bullseye until I got thrown off for shooting slow fire to fast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bompa Posted November 13, 2004 Author Share Posted November 13, 2004 I believe I have lost the desire to try a 38 spec auto conversion.. Wonder if a rechambered 38super barrel would be usable ? Perhaps it would be rather expensive also..Would prefer a locked up barrel anyway.. Well it was a good thought anyway.. Thanks for the information guys .. Back to the drawing board for a winter project.. Henry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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