What’s It For?
Shawn Armstrong, who appears to have been the prime mover on the U.S. side of this collaboration, had left Nighthawk by the time the Super Sport came out, but he was succeeded in Nighthawk R&D by Allen Wyatt, who had worked alongside him on the project. Allen told On Target, “The Super Sport was designed more for PPC style shooting. The rails are for various attachments , ranging from stops for shooting off of barricades to lasers and lights. One thing to note on the Super Sport. The front sight can be sighted in for four predetermined ranges. We sight it in on position one only, but the end user can then make adjustments to the remaining three positions for POI adjustment at different distances of their choosing.”
On the “PPC” thing, your correspondent can share some insight and history. I began shooting Practical Police Course competition in 1972, when we had to use factory stock service revolvers. Smith & Wesson K-38s and Colt Pythons and such, with 6-inch barrels, were the winning guns. Along about that time, NYPD Stakeout Squad gunfighter and pistol champion, Jim Cirillo, got together with New Jersey pistolsmith Austin Behlert and came up with the idea of putting a 6-inch long, 1-inch diameter stovepipe-like Douglas barrel onto a Smith & Wesson Model 10 frame, along with a heavy sight rib mounting precision-adjustable BoMar sights. The massive weight out front stabilized the revolver against the mandatory, heavy double-action trigger pull at 25 yards and shorter distances. At the 50 yard line, legendary Border Patrolman, Bill Jordan, came up with the idea of cranking the rear sight to where the gun shot so low from point of aim, you could balance the head of the silhouette target atop the front sight like a bulls-eye instead of area-aiming at the center of the indistinct target at long range, and plunk your shots into the middle of the black silhouette. I came to know all three men, Cirillo and Jordan becoming mentors, and when I followed their advice and got such a gun (from custom gunsmith Ron Power in Missouri) I won PPC matches shooting that way.
Time has marched on. PPC became moribund because it was old and slow, though it still exists. In 1979, John Bianchi and another of my mentors, the first World Combat Pistol Champion, Ray Chapman, created the Bianchi Cup format, known today as NRA Action Shooting. For many years, John Pride of the LAPD Pistol Team ruled the Bianchi Cup with a PPC gun. I tell all that to explain that, with some authority, I can say that the Nighthawk/Korth Super Sport would be an excellent choice for shooting either PPC or Bianchi Cup-style competition.
Distinctive Features
The top rail on the Super Sport adapts to a red dot, or if you prefer, a telescopic sight. The side rails can accept “barricade wings” to lock the gun against the barricade for that stage of Bianchi Cup, one fourth of the 480-shot course of accuracy-intensive fire. Earlier Korths had a cylinder release lever alongside the hammer, but this variation has an Americanized-release that pushes forward like the familiar S&W, but also upward at about 45 degrees.
Our test sample came with a .38 Special/.357 Magnum cylinder in place, and a 9mm Luger cylinder assembly. Interchangeability was amazingly quick and easy. Korth included their own 9mm speedloader, which all of us found a bit difficult to fill and not especially fast to release; while Korth is supposedly looking at a moon-clip-compatible 9mm cylinder, it does not exist at this time. However, an ingenious extractor design works fine for ejecting “rimless” 9mm casings and live cartridges.
Nighthawk and Korth went with an .003” barrel/cylinder gap, which is awfully tight if the gun gets filthy. That said, though, we shot it a good bit and the Super Sport never bound up.