#fortyfivefriday This early 80's Clark "Bowling Pin Model" aka Pin Gun, was the first of what we now know as a sight block style 1911. Custom pistolsmith and bullseye legend Jim Clark popularized the Pin Gun - a barrel weight and tapered conical sleeve that was threaded onto a standard 1911 barrel - as a way of taming the recoil of the powerful .45 loads favored in Second Chance Bowling Pin shooting. This particular specimen is one of the later ported models, and led into the rise of the chambered compensator. It is a perfect snapshot in time back to when I first started shooting IPSC (before USPSA became the US governing body), and everyone on the cutting edge was shooting a ported pin gun. Four decades later, and we are effectively rediscovering barrel weights and ported barrel weights.

@108Performance Everything old is new again, and I’m here for it. 😎

@108Performance The good old days! We used to shoot together at Topton. I recall you shooting a Hi-Power.

@108Performance I knew the man that made these especially for bowling pin matches

@108Performance So this is a modified 1911? The barrel is obviously modified, probably, the mag, or the grip? Were scopes able to be equipped on this?

@108Performance I held a Clark gun, should have bought it. The stippling is medieval. It’s like hook Velcro to skin.

@108Performance After dumping a ton of money into a 45, my first IPSC match I blew the front sight off. So yeah, it was fun back in the early days.

@108Performance I have gotten to handle a Clark gun or two. Very nice, all business guns, everything on them done for practical purposes, and let the aesthetics fall where they may.