The .44 Magnum is American ballistics history. It’s as American as Apple Pie, Turkey on Thanksgiving, and Fireworks on the 4th of July. Likewise, the revolver has played a significant role in American firearm history. So, when a company like Spohr brings the two together with its N670, it’s worth taking a look.
The Spohr N670 Wheelgun
Elmer Keith, an Idaho rancher, prolific gunwriter, and relentless experimenter, spent the 1920s through the 1950s hot-rodding the .44 Special with heavy, hard-cast bullets and higher pressures. He developed the 250–260 grain Keith-style semi-wadcutter and persuaded Smith & Wesson and Remington to produce a longer, stronger cartridge that could not be fired in weaker .44 Special guns.
In 1955, Remington introduced the .44 Remington Magnum, and Smith & Wesson followed with the Model 29. This turned Keith’s laboratory notes and field trials into a standardized, iconic big-bore cartridge.
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Thomas Spohr is a modern gunsmith whose career grew from a traditional German apprenticeship and bench work into a small-batch manufacturing philosophy. He founded Spohr to combine precision CNC machining and wire EDM with meticulous hand fitting. The result is his series of revolvers, which emphasize repeatable tolerances, adjustable triggers, and user-focused shootability.
The Spohr N670 in .44 Magnum brings Keith’s American cartridge into a revolver built to exacting German standards.
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Roots and philosophy
Elmer Keith’s contribution is ballistic and cultural. His experiments with heavy, hard-cast bullets and high-pressure .44 Special loads proved that large, slow-moving projectiles could deliver devastating terminal performance. Keith lobbied industry partners to create a purpose-built, stronger cartridge, and his work directly led to Remington’s .44 Magnum and S&W’s Model 29 in 1955.
Thomas Spohr’s contribution is craftsmanship and process. Trained within the German guild tradition, Spohr applies modern machining and wire EDM to produce parts with minimal variability.
Frames, cylinders, and shrouds are milled from single billets of stainless steel. Likewise, internal parts are all but just finished to exacting tolerances by hand with two swipes of a file. That manufacturing discipline yields revolvers with predictable triggers, consistent lockup, and a level of fit-and-finish that emphasizes real-world shootability over cosmetic flash.
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(This past September, I flew to Germany to investigate their factory. I spent some time with Thomas and his team to learn about their mindset and how they approach gun building.)
Put simply, Keith created the ballistic brief; Spohr built a revolver to realize it with surgical consistency. The Spohr N670 in .44 Magnum is where American cartridge heritage meets German benchmaking.
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N670 First Impressions
The N670 is roughly the size of a Smith & Wesson N-frame. However, it wears Spohr’s familiar L-frame round-butt grip across the family; all his revolvers do. Out of the box, it ships with Nill grips that are comfortable for range work and target shooting. In practice, I found those grips excellent for accuracy. However, they are a touch bulky for quick reload drills with speedloaders.
That is a simple fix. I’ve been working with Jacob Holley at Badger Custom Grips to develop an alternative grip profile that trims the upper section for faster, cleaner speedloader seating. When I swap in a thinner pre-production Badger grip, the geometry becomes ideal for both competition and hard use.
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The gun’s finish is bead-blasted stainless steel, and the overall weight is 53 ounces. Overall length is 12.25 inches, and capacity is six rounds. Those numbers make it a substantial handgun, but not unreasonably large for a .44 Magnum. It settles into the hand with a sense of balance that speaks to careful distribution of mass rather than brute bulk.
Spohr Mechanical Precision and Tuneability
Spohr did not build the N670 to be a one-size-fits-all showpiece. The gun arrives with a number of practical, shootable features. The front sight is interchangeable, and the rear sight is an LPA unit cut to the S&W pattern. So, sight swaps and optic work are straightforward.
The main spring is adjustable, and the trigger has an adjustable overtravel stop. That combination lets you tune trigger feel and engagement to your preferred sweet spot, whether you want a crisper single-action break for precision fire or a heavier, reliable double-action pull for field work.
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I measured the factory trigger as an instructive benchmark. The double-action averaged 8 pounds 12 ounces with 100 percent ignition across the sample. Likewise, the single-action six-pull average came in at 2 pounds 5.3 ounces. Those numbers show how Spohr delivers a light, clean single-action and dependable double-action.
In other words, you can run the gun aggressively or slowly, and it will behave. With an adjustable mainspring, you can set the trigger for the application.
The N670 uses a polygonal barrel profile beneath a shroud that you’d need to be told is two pieces. For those who like to move weight around, some Spohr models include a full underlug with a removable tungsten weight.
On a 6.5-inch variant, that underlug gives you the ability to tune the gun’s balance to the optic you place on top or what you like out front. Remove the tungsten to lighten the front end, and the handling becomes noticeably quicker. However, leaving it in improves stability for precision shots.
Ballistics & Performance
I feed the test guns ammunition I trust, and HSM supplied a selection of loads that allowed the .44 to show its range. I ran a cross-section of HSM cartridges at 50 yards and captured velocity data with a Garmin Xero chronograph.
| Cartridge | Average Velocity |
| HSM 44 240g PFP | 1,200 |
| HSM 44 300g XTP | 1,250 |
| HSM 44 30gr JSP | 1,058 |
| HSM 44 305g Lead WFN GC | 1,260 |
Those load types show how flexible the .44 is, from heavy-punched hunting projectiles to faster jacketed bullets for flatter trajectories.
On steel at 50 yards, I placed five out of six shots while standing on a four-inch plate. That is not a fluke. It is a function of the N670’s intrinsic accuracy and repeatable sights. The gun consistently groups tightly at 40 feet and remains impressively capable at 50 yards, where many big-bore revolvers start to open up.
In practical hunting terms, that is enough for most field shots and carries a confidence rarely found in production revolvers.
Handling the Spohr N670
I run Speedbeez speedloaders across every wheelgun I test to ensure compatibility and to measure how factory ergonomics affect reload times. The N670’s cylinder geometry is essentially in line with S&W N-frame dimensions. This means it plays well with off-the-shelf speedloader gear.
The caveat I found is the Nill target grip, which can interfere with quick seating when left in place. Once I swapped to the slimmer Badger prototype grips, the speedloaders seated cleanly. As a result, the reload times matched the best guns I have in my kit. That is the value of modularity: the gun invites customization to the way you shoot.
Reliability
Spohr’s reputation for durability is not marketing copy. Internal components are not MIM; they are machined and heat-treated. I ran this N670 through this year’s Ballistics Best test and put 175 rounds of .44 through it with zero failures and nothing coming loose.
At Thunder Ranch, I put a Club 5.0 through 1,000 rounds of hard use without maintenance. On my last visit, I brought this .44 with me, and Jack Daniel TR’s Director of Training landed shots at 200 yards on factory sights.
These guns are built to last, and that is a direct result of the manufacturing philosophy: invest in good steel, precise machining, and careful assembly, and the gun returns that investment with long-term reliability.
The 670’s Market Position
With an MSRP of $4,199, the Spohr N670 sits near the top of the market, and buyers should understand what they are paying for. You pay for fit, repeatability, and parts that will stand up to decades of use.
If you tried to duplicate these features on a Smith or a Colt, you would likely end up spending a similar sum once gunsmithing, barrel profiling, trigger work, and hand-fitting are factored in. Spohr brings all of that out of the box, with holster compatibility and serviceability in mind.
This is not a gun for everyone, but if you want a single revolver to last a lifetime and to perform like a custom build from day one, the Spohr is a rational choice. For a shooter who prizes accuracy, feel, and heirloom quality, the N670 is hard to beat.
Final Shots
The Spohr N670 in .44 Magnum is a rare combination of ballistic power and bench-made refinement. It shoots like a precision revolver and endures like a tool made for work.
If you are the kind of shooter who wants to hand a revolver down to the next generation, or who expects a production gun to perform like a custom piece, the N670 is worth every minute you will spend with it on the range. It fits the impossible triangle of being pretty, accurate, and confirmed hard use, and it does so without compromise.
Shoot safe.
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