I want to port my 590a1 barrel.

It's not worth it

I'd spend $255 on ammo and practice

patterning of the holes in your eardrums yep. vastly improved.

In my humble opinion, all that jazz voodoo does very little, and the FliteControl wad does much.

imo, if you want tight patterns, shoot the FC.

Porting will make the gun viciously loud, maybe loud enough to permanently wipe out a huge chunk of your hearing if you have to touch it off in a confined space without hearing protection.

The Vang Comp treatment minus the porting might be worth it if you want to get good performance of out cheap loads, and it would still kick less than before. Even a run-of-the-mill lengthened foring cone job would help a bit on both sides of the gun and wouldn't cost all that much.

If want tighter patterns out cheap buckshot get the forcing cone lengthened and have choke tubes installed. Mike Orlen does a very good job for a very reasonable price.


GC

+1 on saving the money and spending it on a shotgun training class.

Will Vang split up labor? or do you need to pay for the whole system? Porting looks cool, but Youngster's right...a round of 00 in a tight space would be bruuuutal on the ears. My main concern is super tight patterns. FC rounds are great, but if the price was right to have a gun that gave out great patterns with even subpar ammo...that's something to consider.

Click to expand...

According to their website the Vang treatment without the porting is $200. Getting the forcing cone lengthened would cost you a fraction of that and should provide much of the benefits if done well. I've got a long cone on one of my IC choked barrels and its pretty decent with cheap buckshot, although it came that way so I don't know how much of that is due to the long cone.

Maybe you want to, but should you? Most folks with experience shooting ported barrels say no, in fact you shouldn't.

But it's your barrel, your $$$, your decision.

lpl
==============
Porting: A few new guns, notably a large part of the Japanese
Browning Citori series and many of the Berettas, now come with barrel
porting standard. There are also a dozen aftermarket companies that
perform this modification. Does it actually work? Probably a little, but
equally probably, not enough to matter. It definitely does not work as
well as it does in the high gas pressure environments of rifle and
pistol. Stroboscopic photography seems to show that porting does indeed
slightly reduce muzzle jump when the gun is unrestrained. The heavier
the shell, the better it works. Whether the reduction in muzzle jump
will be noticeable to the shooter is another question, especially if the
shooter uses light loads.

In the 1970s the Technoid conducted a blind comparison (some say that
all of the Technoid's comparisons are blind) of Magnaported barrels vs
standard barrels on a Remington 1100 and could detect absolutely no
difference. Then again, it is hard to tell with gas guns. His later
tests on two identical Browning Citori GTI O/Us, one factory ported and
one not, also showed no discernable difference. We are talking about
muzzle jump here. No one has ever substantiated any claim that porting
has reduced rearward recoil, although several of the machine shops claim
it. Be aware that many types of porting increase muzzle blast to
obnoxious levels, but other port hole shapes do not seem to.
-- http://www.shotgunreport.com/TechTech/TechnicalTracts/ChokePort.html

Do not port the barrel of a home defense gun

It will blow your ear drums in a confined space. You can get different ammo to do what you want without porting.

I must be in the "other camp" --- I shoot ALOT of Action/Combat type matches and a ported or Compinsator on a shotgun DOES WORK.

For porting or a Comp to REALLY work , you have to increase the "gas" being used --- you will notice a bigger difference in shooting slugs/mag. buckshot then you will with "trap" or light game loads.

I personally know Gunsmiths who port shotguns --- all they do is drill a series of holes at 2 and 10 o'clock and then REALLY POLISH the inside of the brl.

BTW --- having the lengthened forceing cone done is a good idea.

As to " they are loud " THAT IS A FACT --- BUT -- if it cuts recoil and makes me HIT a bad guy in my house -- it is worth it IMHO .

Lee Lapin
Porting: ...Be aware that many types of porting increase muzzle blast to
obnoxious levels, but other port hole shapes do not seem to.

Click to expand...

Correct. Most of the hard-core skeet shooters at my range will not, unless squadded in competition, shoot with folks who have some specific types of porting because of the unnerving noise factor.

I had my 1100 barrel ported by Lazer-Ports (626-357-4953) and none of the aforementioned finicky-folks have complained or even commented on my shotgun's porting.

At the same time that I had it ported I also had the forcing cone elongated to 5" (Lazer-Port will go out to 6") and backbored. The results were awesome and definitely worth the cost to me. It was unfortunate that I could not justify the cost of having each of those things done individually so I could comment on what was most effective or not effective. I was so satisfied that I'm going to send several other barrels off to have the exact same thing done.

...Edited...

doubletap.

As far as porting goes, I wouldn't do it on a HD shotgun or any shotgun that may get shot without hearing protection.

Regarding the other treatment--If it were really advantageous to have the forcing cone lengthened, wouldn't manufacturers do it before it left the factory? Especially since they could do this for no additional expense and reap all the benefits of increased sales for offering this service on "stock" guns.

Personally, I would spend the money on ammo (you could buy a thousand round case for the same price) and shoot the snot out that som beach.

I'm missing something...

If it were really advantageous to have the forcing cone lengthened, wouldn't manufacturers do it before it left the factory? Especially since they could do this for no additional expense and reap all the benefits of increased sales for offering this service on "stock" guns.

Click to expand...

Some do, but to really be effective pattern wise usually requires a long and highly polished transition, which isn't really practical on a cheap mass production gun. Also, the average shotgunner, not talking about serious competitors or other hardcore users here, are probably the least technically demanding people in the firearms world, most are not going to care enough to pay extra for a long cone.

mossberg will port it for $30 look at the website

How well does the gun fit you? Most defensive guns have stocks that are too long for one. I have a Hogue short stock on my main 870 and it really helps me get in down behind the gun and keep it doing what I want it to.

You could do the forcing cone, maybe get it fitted for choke tubes. Or run Flitecontrol buck exclusively, or just used to the way it is and run slugs beyond the range where your patterns start getting iffy. Buckshot is a short ranged affair at the best of times, targets that look close enough to spit on can be too far away to catch a full payload.

Many if not most riot type guns won't throw a within-torso-width pattern much beyond 15 yards and few will do it at 25, especially without barrel/choke work and good ammo.

Any of the folks who do professional choke tube installations can do forcing cones too- Colonial, Briley, Carlson etc.

But it would be cheaper to buy a box of Federal or Hornady buckshot with the FliteControl wad and pattern it, first. Unless I miss my guess, you won't want any tighter pattern that it will give you.

My pet 870 with an old Police takeoff barrel (factory 18" marked CYL) delivers consistent 4" patterns with Federal LE 127-00 (9 pellets, 1325 FPS) at 25 yards/75 feet. Of course, with shotgun barrels being the way they are, I can't guarantee it will work that well for you, but I'd sure be surprised if it didn't.

Look- 10 or 15 years ago, you simply could not get that kind of patterns out of a riot shotgun unless you tweaked stuff. I know, I was doing it- getting choke tubes installed, having forcing cones done, the whole ball of wax. It isn't necessary any more, in almost all cases. All you have to do is buy good buckshot loads, and it's the same thing as having $200 worth of work done on a barrel. I've been there already. And there's no need to go there any more, as long as you can still buy tight patterning buckshot like Federal or Hornady. If you just want to play around, or if you want to be able to tweak patterns with cheaper buckshot loads, then have at it. But $200 will go a long way toward buying a case of Federal buckshot with the FliteControl wad...

FWIW,

lpl

I personally don't like defensive buck that runs too tight, although it is a lot better than the alternative. I want a "controlled burst" that gives me a bit of even spread out at the point where I might start needing it when things get hectic. The FC stuff can run so tight that it may well be at the point where it starts running out of juice before it starts giving you much spread.

In a situation where you must fire your shotgun inside you house for self defense of you and your family, who cares about the noise from the shot.

It is going to be loud, no matter what gun you are shooting. That should not be of concern to you, winning the fight should be all you are focusing on. Your ears will recover.

I like the porting on my field guns, never had a comment from anyone who thought they were too loud. If you want it, and it helps you, or makes you happy then get it done.