Korriphila HSP 701 Rounded Trigger Guard

Korriphila made fewer pistols in a year than most factories make before lunch, and that scarcity is the whole story here. Edgar Budischowsky designed the HSP 701 around a roller-delayed locking system, and Karl Nill's Stuttgart shop built them slowly, one at a time, to tolerances that read more like a watchmaker's bench than a gun line. This example wears the rounded trigger guard and runs the double-action trigger with decocker, the configuration most shooters consider the cleaner profile of the two.

The slide carries the Korriphila logo, the Mod. HSP 701 marking, and Made in Germany on the right, with System Budischowsky cut into the left flank. Look at the slide serrations. They are broad, deliberate, and machined with a precision you can feel under the thumb. The finish is a deep, even matte black across slide and frame, with the barrel left in the white where it shows through the ejection port and at the muzzle. That contrast is part of the look.

Grips are checkered walnut, target style, with a generously palm-filling shape that reaches up high on the frame. They show a warm reddish tone and a little honest handling polish on the high points. The decocker sits at the rear of the slide, and the rounded guard gives the front of the pistol that fluid, traditional line.

Chambered in 9mm Luger, as marked on the barrel hood. The bore is bright with crisp rifling, and the included ISSF target shows where this one prints. Tight, centered, the kind of group that tells you the lockup and the barrel fit are doing exactly what Budischowsky intended.

For a collector chasing elite postwar German iron, this is the one that rarely surfaces in the correct trim. Hold it once and the price of admission starts to make sense.