Intelligent debate request...Compensated vs. Non-compensated pistols for defense?

[JMusic]

Timbokhan, you sound like some of the other "Jar Heads" I worked with. One of which saved my life during a "non experienced event". Oh yeah there wasn't a hell of alot of "intellegent debate" during that either.
Jim

 

[jnjr45]

Compensated vs. Non-compensated pistols for defense?

If you want the best of both worlds , Just get a non-ported slide and barrel for your auto handgun...............:banghead:

 

[roo_ster]

Ports? No Thanks

I don't even like them when shooting in daylight. THEY MAKE A TOLERABLY LOUD WEAPON EXCRUCIATINGLY LOUD.

No, I have not used audio equipment to verify, but a ported auto of the 9mm/.38super/.40s&w variety is noticably noisier than an uncompensated full-house .357mag revolver...2" or 4" bbl. This is through plugs & muffs.

Many times I have gotten to a point behind the firing line which is considered safe to lose eye & ear protection only to have a shooter open up with his ported wonder gun and have to get the ears back on.

I can only imagine letting loose with a compensated weapon without ear protection in a confined space...youch!

Go to a USPSA match some time & watch the guys with the compensated guns go through the stages. Most of them are handloaders & some use smokey loads. The distance you can see, in daylight, the smoke plume jet into the air is impressive. I wonder just how far the hunks of jacket material or lead shavings go...

 

[Cousin Mike]

I honestly forgot...

I don't even like them when shooting in daylight. THEY MAKE A TOLERABLY LOUD WEAPON EXCRUCIATINGLY LOUD.

This is something I honestly did not recall until it was mentioned. My 1911 has the same bassy "BOOM!" sound that you hear from anything else in .45ACP, but my best friends gun (the Glock 21C) almost sounds like a rifle. It's almost like a shrill, devastatingly loud crack. Before anyone decides to ridicule my comparison, I'll let it be known that I don't know much of anything about rifles, but I have fired a few... The Glock 21C to me, sounds almost like an AK-47.. Not as loud, but significantly louder and "higher pitched" than my 1911. It's a completely different sound. Keep in mind, we have fired both guns side by side, on a friends property. We have fired them with and without ear protection. I remember quite clearly being startled half to death the first time I heard it.

Also to calrify my New Years experience (night shooting), the flash didn't completely blind me, or incapacitate me, but it did impact my vision enough to decide they weren't for me. I dont know how to describe it, but I'll try.. You know that yellowish-green flash impression that stays in your center of vision for a while after seeing something flash in the dark? That's what happened. Like looking directly into a flashlight and then turning all the lights off in the room. It's not painful, or enough to technically blind you, but it's nothing I want to deal with in a SD situation. The fact that some of the posters here have reported minor injuries and the serious possibility of it only reinforces the thought (for me) that I wouldn't use one for home or self protection.

 

[Broadhead]

Seems like a lot of replies are running against ports.

I avoid ports for a reason that probably is not scientific, just a feeling: gas leaking out the side could have pushed that bullet just a little faster toward the threat in a self-defense social situation. I shoot .45 in a full-size and recently .40 in a subcompact and I am not bothered by the recoil.

 

[benEzra]

I once qualified with a magna-ported S&W 4586. During the up close "hip shooting" phases, the porting sent gasses, powder and other particles straight up into my face. Even wearing glasses doesn't help, as the debris comes up behind them.

I changed back to an unported barrel and slide.

That would be my primary concern with shooting a ported pistol in close proximity to oneself. The last thing you want to do in a self-defense situation is to put a bunch of hot powder residue and copper slivers in your eyes.

John Farnam has mentioned this from time to time. This is all secondhand, but Farnam is well respected and has a lot of correspondents.

23Sept04

Comments on ported handgun barrels, from a friend at a large, metro police academy:

"We had a minor injury on our range yesterday. Students were firing at close range with pistols held close to holsters, with the support hand in a high, blocking posture. A student suddenly realized he had a laceration on the inside of his left forearm. He subsequently found a sliver of bullet jacket

lodged in a cut on his arm.

A band-aid sufficed, but I was concerned about the origin of the bullet spatter. I then noticed that this student was using a ported G23. A student standing to his right found a similar fragment lodged in the underside of her cap visor. This piece was a long, curled ribbon, much like that from a sharp drill in soft metal. Ammunition was white box, generic. I've had similar occurrences with ported guns, but this is our first injury, albeit a minor one.

In any case, I agree with your assessment of ported pistols. The only hole that belong in a serious pistol's barrel is the one the bullet comes out of ."

Comment: This kind of thing is surely not likely to be helpful during a real fight. Ported barrels do not belong on serious guns.

/John

http://www.defense-training.com/quips/2004/23Sept04.html

25 Jan 02

Thoughts on competitive shooting and shooters:

This is from a friend in the Philippines:

"A local shooter was trying to learn the ‘speed rock' as taught by a number of instructors. He was using a Para Ordinance Commander in 40S&W, equipped with a Hybrid barrel. He nearly dropped the gun after only one shot. Had he not been wearing glasses, he would have spent a longer time in the hospital, I'm sure.

Ported pistols are popular here because of the dominance of IPSC. Even local trainers are essentially products of the IPSC system. Few have ever seen the wrong end of the gun. The IPSC culture has even permeated the ranks of Police and Military services. I cannot remember the number of times I've seen beat cops using IPSC holsters on duty.

It saddens me that many have unwittingly decided to adopt the games approach to survival rather than learn from the true lessons of our past. I've met my share of real world survivors over here, and none of them had ported guns or fancy rigs. All of them lived to retire."

http://www.defense-training.com/quips/2002/25Jan02.html

 

[MachIVshooter]

Comp'ed/ported defensive handguns.........

Upside: more shots on target, faster.

Downside: after the first shot (at night), you won't see where to put those fast follow-up shots

I'll take non-ported, thank you