Korth Ratzeburg Sport Stainless 6 Inch .357 Magnum

The barrel marking tells you exactly what you're holding. MADE IN W.GERMANY, WAFFENFABRIK KORTH, RATZEBURG / LBG. That address puts this revolver in the era collectors chase hardest, the years when Korth built everything in-house in Ratzeburg before the brand changed hands and moved on. These were never volume guns. Korth turned them out in tiny numbers, each one hand-fitted by a workforce you could count on two hands, and the result is the kind of mechanical fit that S&W and Colt never tried to match at any price.

This one wears a satin stainless finish over the full package. The 6 inch barrel carries a full underlug and a ribbed top, and you can see the fine machining lines running the length of both the rib and the underlug in the close-up shots. The cylinder is fluted and cut to that signature Korth tolerance, and the crane-mounted ejector rod sits in its shroud the way it should. Up top there's an adjustable target rear sight paired with a serrated front blade, the setup that lets a shooter regulate point of impact down to the click.

The grips are checkered walnut in the target pattern, filling the hand with a palm swell that runs deep into the backstrap. They show warm color against the matte stainless, with light handling marks on the high spots and one small ding near the heel. The metal is clean throughout, the bore is bright, and the lockup is tight with no play at the cylinder.

Korth chambered the Sport in .357 Magnum on a six-shot cylinder, and the trigger is where the money went. Double-action rolls smooth, single-action breaks clean and short. If you've handled a Smith and then a Ratzeburg Korth back to back, you already know why these command what they do. This is the one to own if you want German revolver craft at its peak.