Korth NXR .44 Magnum
The Dinosaur Slayer
Whether you want to hunt dinosaurs in some future-past or simply want to be the
coolest kid on the range, the Korth is up to both tasks!
The modern revolver has its origins with the legendary Samuel Colt. Colonel Sam was inspired by the capstan device on the brig Corvo he crewed as a young seafaring lad plying the waves in search of adventure. For nearly two centuries the wheelgun has ably occupied holsters around the world. Easy to use, accurate, and as reliable as the tides, the classic revolver has much to commend it even this deep into the Information Age.
The ultimate iteration of Sam Colt’s timeless design is today’s Korth NXR .44 Magnum. Birthed in Germany and offered on this side of the pond by the fine folks at Nighthawk Custom, the NXR .44 Magnum represents the absolute pinnacle of wheelgun evolution. With an execution most typically reserved for nuclear reactors or interplanetary spacecraft and a sticker price to match, the NXR .44 Magnum is the powerful rarefied handgun for the shooter of distinction. Potential applications for such a top-tier hand howitzer are thought-provoking indeed.
Seriously Dangerous Game
Blake Hardwick made his money young and fast. He was the founder of PointlessGarbage.com, the most popular social media application on the planet. By his 30th birthday Blake had the trophy wife, a lifetime’s worth of toys and more money than any mere mortal could spend. To assuage boredom Hardwick indulged his fetish for hunting dangerous game.
Blake had already bagged a record Kodiak brown bear in Alaska, a 1,200-lb. cape buffalo in South Africa and a Namibian leopard at five meters with a 12 bore. This day, however, was something altogether different. This expedition had cost him a cool $100 million.
This Montana day was Africa hot and suffocatingly humid. Blake had located a big male via drone before initiating his stalk. Pressing into a stand of heavy three-meter ferns he held his custom Korth NXR .44 Magnum revolver at the ready. He edged his hat clear of his eyes with his forearm and thumbed back the hammer. His finger loitered nervously alongside the trigger as if his life depended upon it — which it did.
Hardwick stood stock still. Amidst the pervasive buzz of mosquitoes the size of his thumb, he felt more than heard the deep rhythmic cadence of coarse breathing nearby. He crouched, oriented his massive revolver toward the sound and tried to penetrate the foliage with his eyes. The thick ferns parted slowly and he stroked the trigger as the world exploded.
This adult male Deinonychus was likely a solitary hunter, arguably the most adroit in history, and it had been stalking Hardwick just as he had returned the favor. As the sleek theropod charged through the underbrush behind its 16″ skull bristling with razor-sharp teeth, Hardwick’s Korth punched a heavy 300-gr. hollowpoint deep into its chest.
The terrifying creature fell heavily to the jungle floor, aerated blood spraying liberally through broad flaring nostrils. At 200 lbs. the adult Deinonychus was faster than a cheetah and uniformly lethal. The 5″ articulated claw located on the second toe of each hind foot could disembowel man-sized prey with a stroke. However, the same lightweight skeletal system making it so breathtakingly fast also left the animal surprisingly fragile. The single heavy expanding bullet pithed the creature’s heart and it bled out in short order.
Hardwick checked his frantic breathing, holstered his extraordinary German revolver, and had the big raptor gutted in minutes. He secured a sling around the carcass and began retracing his steps. It was nearly a kilometer back to the Time Displacement Vehicle (TDV) and he was already imagining how the taxidermy mount of the dromaeosaurid would look crouching next to the sleek onyx desk in his office upon his return from the Cretaceous period.
Hardwick crested a rise and spotted the incongruous mechanical geometry of the TDV steaming in the distance. The inert weight of the creature left him uncharacteristically winded. However, something inexplicably made the man turn around. He had a strange ethereal sensation he was being watched. Were the temporal paleontologists completely certain this early into the time travel era the Deinonychus was not actually a pack hunter?
The Korth .44 Magnum Revolver: Combining art with firepower!
Now Back To The Present
If you’re rich enough it’s at least hypothetically possible to buy your way into space. Money can land a spouse, an island, or an enviable position in modern politics. However, technology has not yet determined how to transcend time. If it could, however, and well-heeled folks of means could actually travel back to the Cretaceous to hunt dinosaurs with a handgun, the Korth NXR .44 Magnum would do the deed.
Certain names conjure a visceral image of quality and superlative workmanship. Though I’ve never had the pleasure myself, I’m told by those I trust Rolls Royce makes a fairly nice automobile. In the world of handguns, Korth-Waffen carries a comparably weighty gravitas.
Willi Korth birthed the first Korth guns in Lollar, Hesse, Germany, back in 1954. A former railway engineer, Herr Korth cut his teeth making inexpensive non-lethal defensive revolvers designed to fire tear gas cartridges. Since then Korth-Waffen has evolved into one of the most high-end arms manufacturers in the world.
The cylinder offers plenty of room for fast loading and unloading. Press a button
on the right side of the frame and the cylinder removes for cleaning.
Unboxing An Heirloom
This rarefied firearm ships inside a padded cardboard box. I have purchased cheap mass-produced plastic pistols which arrived in polymer cases rugged enough to survive atmospheric reentry. However, those ubiquitous plastic cases now litter my attic unused. You don’t buy a gun like this for the box it comes in.
There are rakish slots cut gill-like in the barrel sleeve allowing the natural stainless barrel to remain visible underneath. This produces a certain primal effect like you’re hefting some miniature shark spitting bullets. The gun strongly resembles Rick Deckard’s sidearm from Blade Runner.
The gun is heavy, almost massive, like you’re paying for it by the ounce. The thick wooden grip folds into the human hand as though it were something organic. The mechanical interfaces are tough to capture in prose. You think you have experienced mechanical perfection elsewhere, then you grab this thing and realize you were mistaken.
Based in Arkansas, Nighthawk Custom was birthed in 2004 and has cemented its reputation for producing the world’s most refined 1911 pistols. Their slogan is “One Gun, One Gunsmith,” and their hand-fit weapons are indeed breathtaking to behold. I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know Mark Stone, the chief bottle washer at Nighthawk Custom, and he is a genuinely awesome guy. The holy melding of Nighthawk Custom and Korth-Waffen makes for a natural match.
Need room to mount optical sights for your next dinosaur hunt? The Korth offers
acres of rail space for your accessories, plus more under the barrel.
The Dinosaur Slayer
The Korth NXR .44 Magnum is comparable parts of combat tool and objet d’art. An integrated Picatinny rail up top accepts optics, while a similar bit on the bottom allows for customizable barrel weights. This particular copy sports a prodigious example. The hammer-forged precision barrel renders competition-grade accuracy, while the oversized Turkish walnut grips fit the human form like your threadbare Led Zeppelin T-shirt left over from college. You know, the one with the weird stains.
The rear sight is fully adjustable, while the front sight sports removable side panels. This arrangement offers a unique sight picture somewhat akin to an M1 Carbine with its amply fenced front sight. The cylinder release is a thumb lever located on the left aspect of the hammer. The swing-out cylinder offers plenty of clearance for fast reloads and the ejector sports enough travel to elevate empties generously. Open the action and press a discrete button on the right side of the frame and the cylinder drops free for cleaning.
The whole gun is finished in a rugged and attractive DLC finish. DLC stands for Diamond-Like Carbon coating, and it’s about as awesome as it sounds. Staring at the gun is like peering into the inky black space between the stars in a clear night sky. The gun features a 6″ barrel and an all-in weight just north of 3 lbs. Rugged, accurate and unquestionably beautiful, the Korth-Waffen NXR .44 Magnum is a piece of handheld ballistic art.
The Korth has an unusual lever behind the hammer serving as the cylinder latch.
The rear target-style sights are fully adjustable and machined into the frame.
Trigger Time on the Finest Wheelgun on the Planet
Hate me if you must, but I actually got paid to shoot this gorgeous beast. I maintain a beautiful Smith and Wesson Model 29 .44 Magnum in my personal stable. Though I am old, slow and ugly, I can drag the thing out and almost imagine myself as the uber-cool Dirty Harry Callahan cleaning up the mean streets of San Francisco. However, running full-power .44 Magnum rounds through the manly Tyrannosaurus of the S&W wheelgun is not really much fun.
By contrast, the Korth NXR is a much more comfortable handheld howitzer. Pressure is force divided by area and the fat contoured grips on the NXR distribute the chaos markedly better than the thinner sorts on the Smith offering. The Korth trigger is as smooth as a politician’s lies and as crisp as a fresh bag of Doritos.
The gun’s impressive mass and perfect particulars make running it a treat. As expected, the holy melding of Korth-Waffen and Nighthawk Custom makes for a gun which is preternaturally accurate. Reloads are as fast and smooth as your dexterity will facilitate.
I ran several different loads through this magnificent machine. The heavy 240-gr. JHP rounds are buffalo stoppers, while the relatively lightweight Black Hills HoneyBadger solid copper anti-personnel rounds look like malevolent little flying power tools. If the heavy .44 Magnum horsepower pegs your fun meter unduly, then the NXR still runs soft-recoiling .44 Special rounds as well.
One of the most noteworthy features, the Korth offers “rakish slots cut gill-like
in the barrel sleeve allowing the natural stainless barrel to remain visible underneath.”
The Jim Wison-designed Turkish walnut grips are huge but supremely comfortable,
making the notorious .44 Mag recoil easier to handle.
What’s It Really Good For?
Odds are you won’t be stalking a big buck Deinonychus through the Montana jungles of the Cretaceous anytime soon. However, ours is the most refined consumer society in all of human history. Whether it is automobiles, wristwatches, firearms, or healthcare, if you possess the means, then the world is your oyster. I cannot personally afford such a luxury, but it doesn’t mean I can’t respect those who might.
The Korth-Waffen NXR .44 Magnum is the refined defensive and hunting handgun for the shooter of means. There are certainly better choices for concealed carry, and you might not want to drop your spanking new NXR pistol in the bottom of your tackle box before heading out to drown crickets. However, if you’re partial to wheelguns this is quite literally the top of the heap.
Keep it in your bedside table, stow it gingerly in your glove box, strap it to your hip for your strolls out where the Wild Things Roam, bask in unfettered adulation on the range, or just sit around and drool on it. The Korth NXR .44 Magnum is a simply superlative piece of machinery. Pawing over this one was to taste the finer things.
