Karl Lippard first caught our attention when we learned that the Colorado gunsmith was competing with Colt and Springfield to supply his fellow Marines with a 1911-style sidearm: the $3500 (to you) Combat NCO. Or, if you prefer, “The world’s only 400-yard open sight accurate production pistol.” (Click here to read the Combat NCO manual.) Our subsequent contact with Karl was pretty intense. Back in June 2011, Karl claimed he’d hit an 18″ gong at 600 yards with his A2 wunderpistole. And that wasn’t even the half of it: he touted 1000-yard accuracy and an A3 version that can fire a bullet at 2000 f.p.s.. After that post and an inconclusive visit by our Martin Albright, TTAG’s comms with Karl kinda petered out. Bottom line: Karl never sent us a gun to test. We now hear he’s still in the running for the USMC contract. Might be worth a call . . .
I am a skeptical kitty.
Is the A3 version chambered in .45/70? Cause you ain’t seeing 2000 fps out of 11.43 x 23. Even .45 WinMag is only pushing a 230 gr. bullet at 1400 fps at 40,000 CUP. I’m pretty sure the only way to hit a gong at 600 yds with this pistol is to use a trebuchet.
Perhaps he is using the .9mm ammo?
Long range pistol shooting can be fun but it is more like having a small mortar than normal shooting.
When I was young I could hit a derelict auto at 400 yards or so about once out say a magazine or two if the ground about it was dry and dusty. I could do it with even a .32 ppk as well as dad’s .45 and his 9mm bring backs. Take a sitting position with the pistol braced on your knees and sight along the side of the slide from the top of the slide at the rear to the middle of it at the front(just as a starting point). Take the shot grab the binocs (or have a spotter tell you where he sees the dust and adjust… once I managed the classic one under one over one on… fire for effect! I won a lot of bets when I was a university doing this on the weekend .
note you need to know that your range is safe for this sort of thing… but it also works with calm water where you can see the splashes. light steady or no wind conditions also help if you have a safe place to shoot give it a try you might be amazed at how often you can hit the car.
A car at 400 is quite a bit different than an 18″ gong at 600. It’s just a stupid claim, of course you can use indirect fire to score a lucky hit eventually, but it really doesn’t say a darn thing about your pistol. Besides, it’s supposed to be a service pistol so reliability and durability and service life and low maintenance costs and quality magazines are far more important than match grade accuracy.
Even if you could hit a 18″ target at 600 yards, what’s the point of having that feature in a sidearm? It will only be rarely used and most likely used at much less than say 25 yards.
I don’t even care if he is grossly exaggerating his pistol’s performance. I just want to know what he is smoking that has convinced him that there is a need for such a thing in a combat situation.
What is so special about this 1911 that would make such a shot possible?With modern weapon production being as good as it is these days an Armscor 1911 could do the same thing.
Once again,a shooter cannot buy their way to marksmanship.If a shooter is proficient enough to lob shoots at 400 meters with a pistol they can do it with any gun,not just with “the gumsiths special”
Esoteric Karl I call him. Say what you will, if I could afford it I’d have a Lippard-ed 1911 in my safe.
That barrel link mod of his is a thing of beauty.
I’m guessing that Lippard hit the bong, not the gong.
I’m not interested in shooting his gun, but I’d probably take a hit of whatever he’s smoking.
Yeah, that’s just what our guys need. Not a .30 cal battle rifle. Not a .30 cal squad machine gun. Not a high capacity pistol with more energy than a 9mm (or .9mm).
No, what they need is a pistol mortar to lob rounds at bad guys hundreds of yards away.
Terrific.
They already have them in Camden, NJ. Why not let the Marines give it a try?
I don’t know what all this scepticism is about. I can hit a 600 yard target nine times out of ten with my humble Smith and Wesson model 28 (6″ barrel). You can’t? Then put down the gun and pick up the crochet needles, because you’re neither a shooter nor a man.
Just kidding. The short sight radius and rainbow trajectory of a 1911 make a 400 or 600 yard shot a very chancy thing. However, we don’t have to guess. Apparently he can upgrade any 1911 to have these capabilities for only $165 (does that include ladder sights?).
If Mr. Farago or someone has a spare 1911 and $165, let’s put it to the test!
Why would the Marines need a long-range pistol? Don’t they issue rifles?
There’s a difference between “point” and “area” targets. An area target can in fact be engaged, even well beyond “maximum effective range” with any firearm, you just wouldn’t kill or even likely wound anything you hit. It’s all about the physics.
Whatever this guys is claiming I highly doubt that the pistol would be capable of meaningful performance (physics or not) that he claims under what we will call “real world conditions.” Also, as has been pointed out, why would you need that kind of performance in a pistol? If you are engaging a target 600 yards away with a pistol I am willing to be that there’s a viable alternative… most likely to just run away, or call in fire support, after all 600 yards is 548 meters, 600 meters is danger close for artillery, so just run 62 meters away and call in a much much larger indirect fire round on your target =D problem solved.
If you couldn’t tell I’m extremely skeptical, but whatever, I’m also open minded, convince me Karl, oh and then knock a good 2250 dollars off of that retail price buddy because if I’m going to drop 3500 dollars on a weapon to engage targets at 600 yards and beyond it’s not gonna be a pistol it’s going to be something like a Remington 700 XCR and a Nightforce 3.5-15x50mm tactical scope… which would cost me about 2800 dollars, leaving me plenty of cash to add a decent spotting scope, solid bipod and of course an entire CASE of ammo… that’s just off the top of my wish list… I mean head though lol.
I’ve seen accurate shooting of a 1911A1 at 100 yards, but 600? That I would have to see.
My favorite youtube blogger is hickok45. He has an 85 yard gong that he can hit with *any* 1911 – 5 out of 6 shots, all day. Of course those odds might offend him. But I err on the side of safety
I wondered where this bozo had gone off to…
See he is still trying to convince the Marines to replace everything from foul language to the 155MM howitzer with his gussied up “ultimate extreme combat proven” 1911.
Maybe its time we retire the M14 and start equipping every soldier with this Designated Marksman Pistol.
You’re not supposed to eat the funny mushrooms.
Technically speaking, he claims to have hit the gong with his gun. I read that as “I ran 600 yards and hit the gong with the butt of my gun” He didn’t actually claim to have fired an actual bullet from the gun.
Further, to paraphrase someone – If I had an infinite number of monkeys firing an infinite number of guns, eventually the gong would be hit. The question is, could he do it multiple times in the same session? If so, that would be pretty amazing.
Karl Lippard sounds like a self-promoting bullshit artist. He can prove me wrong by sending TTAG a pistol for testing. Until then, I’m calling BS on all of his outlandish claims.
I have no doubt that with a sufficiently accurate .45 (4.5, 45.0…since we’re so casual with decimal points) it would be easy to hit a gong at 600 yds at least a couple times out of a magazine. Now if he had said 7 of 8 times THAT would be when I called BS. It’s a simple matter of elevation.
See Elmer Keith’s 600 yd shot or Billy Dixon’s 1500+ yd shot at Adobe Walls.
Just plain and simple elevation. Nothing to be scared of.
here’s a idea: the mk 24 mod 0.
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