The Heckler and Koch Mark 23 may well be the finest production handgun ever made: Match grade accuracy, unparalleled reliability, and size that makes throwing it just as lethal as shooting it all play into it being a fantastic pistol.

This behemoth of a gun was designed at the request of the United States Special Operations Command to fill a number of roles, and won the Offensive Handgun Weapon System competition which led to its adoption by a number of entities under the SOCOM umbrella. This time on TFBTV, Alex and Miles take a look at this .45 caliber German dumbbell.

Thanks to our sponsors Grizzly Targets and Ventura Munitions.

Firearm featured:
H&K Mark 23 with KAC suppressor

The full transcript …

(gun shots) – Alright guys, what we’ve got today is a HK-Mark 23, known kind of humorously as the world’s only crew served pistol.

45 ACP firearm, it was designed at the request of the United States Military, because they wanted an offensive handgun. HK didn’t come up with that term, the military actually did and solicited companies like HK and Colt.

So what we’re gonna do today is see what this gun is capable of. They claim it’s one of the most tested firearms in history, all sorts of crazy stuff. I’ve heard military servicemen love it, some hate it.

I’m gonna see what it’s all about today with Miles, and let’s get to it.

– Hey it’s Miles Vining here, and this is my first time shooting the Heckler & Koch Mark 23.

Notice I don’t have hearing protection, because we’ve got a Knights Armarment OHG proprietary suppressor on it. It was made just for the Mark 23 as we can see here.

It gets pretty hot, as Alex was just shooting it earlier. But, let’s give it a go.

(gun shots) (gun shots) It’s a little front heavy, but that was interesting. It sure was.

Bit of a history here.

It’s part of the testing for the Mark 23 they fired three of them, up until about 30,000 rounds and the only thing they had to replace was the O ring, which is this little O ring right here on the barrel, towards the muzzle.

And that was only on one of them, at 20,000 rounds. The initial requirement was 2,000 rounds between mean failures.

It’s actually rated to 6,000 rounds.

And the first failure that occured was at 15,000 rounds.

So it’s a pretty mean beast right here.

It’s often quoted as one of the most extensively tested military pistols in history. A lot was definitely put into it. We don’t have the LAM that came up with it. It was a Laser Aiming Module that was inserted right here, actually that is…The radiation on it and the lasers on it are actually enforced by not the ATF, but by the FDA, for some odd reason with their jurisdiction.

But yeah, it was tested with the suppressor on it.

The proprietary suppressor as we mentioned before.

We can take it off.

And it’s got a little muzzle cap that goes on the end.

And that’s it right there.

Pretty huge. HK got a lot out of this pistol later on leading to the USP series, that we enjoy today.

(gun shots) (gun shots) (gun cocking) (gun shots) (gun shots) (gun shots) – Alright guys, so we had some fun with the Mark 23 today, wringing some steel and shooting it suppressed, unsuppressed.

I’ve shot this gun a lot, and I’ve owned it for I think three years now. And it’s never had a malfunction, shoots greet.

I have big hands, so it fits my hands okay.

I’m not going to lie to you and say it’s a small pistol though. It is a big pistol.

You can see. Miles has big hands as well and even with gloves, it’s still a pretty big gun.

But Miles, you fired it for the first time today, give your overall impressions of what you thought.

– An offensive weapon to say the least.

On single action”s pretty good.

But that double action, wow.

– Yeah, it’s got a stiff double action pull.

There’s no kidding there.

Other than that, the handling charactersitics, what did you think? – Handling? The de-selector over here might leave a little more to be desired.

The safety kinda gets hung up, sometimes.

Otherwise, if you shot a USP, then you’ve shot this. Similar just as that.

The sights, something that I’d like to add that people are going to look at this and say, “It’s unwieldly, it’s heavy, it’s long.

It’s wired, it’s got this LAM thing, that whatever happens on it. Something that we need to place in context is, when this came out this was actually extremely groundbreaking.

There were no Picatinny rails back then.

The concept of putting lights on the front of your handgun just wasn’t there.

This was one of the first pistols to incorporate a bunch of designs we already have.

With the de-selector up here, similar to the CIG.

– And you’ve got nice raised sights to clear the suppressor as well.

– Yeah, that kind of thing as well.

Maybe this started that kind of trend.

This is starting the supressor’s getting in on it as well.

– All in all, it’s a pretty interesting gun, guys.

I’ve read that they’re out of production, however I keep seeing them for sale from big distributors.

So I’m not sure if HK’s making them in batches or maybe they’re selling of remaining inventory.

But yeah- so they’re still around.

And with the suppressor, it’s a great suppressor host. You don’t have to buy the KAC can, their’s other cans with thread pitch now.

I just think the KAC can’s cool cause it’s proper for the gun. But all in all, cool gun.

I enjoyed shooting it. It’s fun wringing steel with this gun. People generally laugh at it what they seehow big it is, but…

if you’re in the market for a target pistol which, these are match grade pistols, they’re capable of two inch grooves at 27 yards. Then, it’s nothing to laugh at.

– No. Not at all.

You’re not gonna be disadvantaged by buying Mark 23. Let’s put it that way.

– It’s not gonna be my concealed carry gun either.

Maybe Andre the Giant could pull it off, but I don’ t think that I could.

– No, no.

– Anyways, at this time. I’d like to thank Ventura Munitions for providing the very expensive 45 ACP we shot today.

– And Grizzly Targets for giving us the targets that we have.

Held up pretty good. Once again, still pretty satisfied with them.

– Absolutely guys. Again this is Alex and Miles with TFPTV. Maybe drop a comment hit the subscribe button if you want.

But until then, we’ll see you next time.

– Until next time.