Handgun Hunting Afield

As I walked the rows of vendors at Shot Show looking for sponsors for Handgun Hunter’s Competition I spotted something that made me completely forget my mission focus.

We have all been there, that great smell, sight, or image that just draws you away and you can’t remember what you were supposed to be doing.

As I rounded a corner I saw a booth full of wheelguns and I started to fix my eyes on the display cabinet. I then saw a logo with the word Spohr and made in Germany and my first thoughts were “I love my Korths, I have to look at these”.

I met the maker of the Spohr revolver, Thomas Spohr, and spoke to him at length. He walked me through the features of his wheelgun. He answered all my questions including all my tolerance and construction questions. In short, he not only set the hook, he ripped on the line a few times to make sure it didn’t fall out.

With all these questions I learned that the Spohr is a clone of a S&W L frame with improvements where needed. The entire firearm and parts are machined from bar stock. They hold some exceptional tolerances in manufacturing that wowed me when told about it with my machinist background. (Spohr has several videos on YouTube explaining these details). They have LPA sights, a fully adjustable front sight, and have drilled and tapped frames for optics mounting.

When I retired from owning Bayside Custom Gunworks my focus changed. I no longer wanted to build or work on guns. I want to just shoot and hunt with them. That is what lead me to buy my first Korth and now this Spohr.

There is a great feeling when you can just open the box and find that the gun is perfect and doesn’t need modifications or tuning from day one. I have tuned enough production guns in the shop, it’s time for me to just put in the field work with them.

So back to Shot Show…..

I couldn’t get this Spohr out of my head the night after I saw it. I thought and pondered and came to the conclusion I couldn’t leave Shot Show without owning one. The next day I went and harassed Thomas some more and sealed the deal so to speak! A Spohr 286 Competition 357 Magnum 6” was ordered!

Fast forward to a few weeks after Shot Show….

These all have to be imported and that takes a little time but I received it in hand in less than 30 days. It comes in a good solid outer shipping box and a premium padded locking hard case. There should be zero worries about shipping the way these are packed.

Upon receiving the revolver in hand and after a quick fondling I proceeded to get it set up for the range.

The factory grips are really pretty hardwood but I know I want Hogue Big Butts in the field. The Spohr is a standard L frame grip so that was a quick swap out. It just takes one small relief cut on the inside of the grip to clear a support they have for the hammer spring system. This took just a few minutes with a rotary tool.

One huge advantage to the Spohr is optics mounting. They all have drilled and tapped frames that take any S&W scope/optics mount. This 286 Competition model also has the railed barrel should you want to mount an optic there.

I elected to add an EGW scope base so I could balance the gun a little better with the Ultradot Gen2 30mm 2moa. The scope base dropped in without issue.

Now onto the range….

I’m running on fumes today after just getting back from a cross country hunting trip and I leave for another hunting trip in a few days, but I had to get this range session in since this Spohr is hunting next week!

I set up a target at 25 yards to do some initial zero work and accuracy evaluation. For a target I used a 8” Shoot N See targets. The target’s bullseye is exactly the right size at 25 yards that when I line up the 2moa dot it completely covers the bull.

For ammo I used a favorite handload with a 158 xtp, 105 Cutting Edge handload, and 140 Cutting Edge factory ammo. All shots were taken from the supported prone.

During my shooting I found myself chasing the “yellow splats” with the red dot some which opened my groups. The groups were starting as single holes and then by the 4-5 shot I’d open them a bit.

Accuracy is proving to be phenomenal. I’ll go back out in a few days and increase the distance and work on field shooting.

The Spohr has a great trigger right out of the box that does not need any adjustment. The fit and finish are right there with my Korths. The major advantage to the Spohr over the Korths is optics mounting. Spohr has multiple options for mounting optics. For the Korth you either have to buy their radical looking models or drill and tap the Mongoose as I did.

I plan to continue this review of the Spohr over the coming months. It’s looking like a no brainer of high quality, insane accuracy, and perfect craftsmanship.

I am already looking forward to the release of their N frame 44 magnum!