How effective is porting on a little handgun?

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DMK

DMK

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I've seen a lot of the little snubbie wheelguns ported and I see that Kahr lists an optional ported barrel for their fire breathers.

I know first hand how effective a properly designed brake can be at reducing recoil in a rifle, but do they actually work to reduce flip in a little pistol? :confused:

Other than the expected noise and flash, are there any drawbacks to a ported barrel?
 
Yeah, it reduces muzzle flip.

In addition to the flash and blast, if you use lead ammo you may clog the porting withour regular cleaning, but that's not a problem for most people.
 
...do they actually work to reduce flip in a little pistol?
Click to expand...

Yep. I took my pre-agreement Smith & Wesson model 60 to the range as soon as I did the trigger job, then sent it to http://www.magnaport.com for porting, bead blasting, barrel crowning, and jewelling the hammer and trigger. Accuracy wasn't affected—it's a surprisingly accurate little revolver, by the bye—but muzzle flip was reduced. On the proverbial "down side," muzzle flash is much more noticeable after dark, and I wouldn't care to discharge the firearm with the top of the barrel near skin or clothing, but as far as I'm concerned, reliability, accuracy, and speed are primary considerations in a carry gun. If you can get off a second shot a skosh faster, it's worth the cost.

I've found the easiest way to clean the ports is to clean as usual, then work a piece of string soaked in Hoppe's No. 9 through each port toward the muzzle, and pull it back and forth, then push the string toward the breech, and pull it back and forth again. It takes me about three minutes longer to clean a ported barrel.
 
Hmm, that's interesting. I was half expecting a whole bunch of reasons why it was bad on a carry gun and how it didn't work as expected. Thanks for the comments guys.
 
People seem to be divided on this.

For me, the ports don't do anything except throw fire and debris up into the sight plane. I would hate to fire a ported gun from a tight to the body defensive position.

Comps work, but that is something else, and you still have the problem with the port on top.

It seems that the longer the barrel and the higher the pressue, the better ports work, ie: a 6" .44mag hunting revolver.

Again, know people who love 'em, but I can't tell enough of a difference to balance out the negatives.
 
Porting works by diverting hot gasses and unburned poowder up in the same derection as recoil. the actions counteract each other and keep the muzzle down.

Sounds great.

Aside from noise and flash and unburned powder (in the form of sparks) flying out of the top of your barrel.

These things are fine in a range and target gun, but in a carry gun?

What would happen if you pulled that trigger while it was at retention range? Would it blow your glasses off? Set your clothes on fire?

What if you pulled the trigger from INSIDE a pocket (like a jacket), which is another possible scenario with a carry gun.

Rather than fight recoil and end up with a gun that hurts you, practice more or download your ammo until you can handle your gun. Change your grips ortry other methods to tame recoil before you start cutting slots in a carry gun.
 
Like Dr. Rob said,

1) You can light yourself on fire or really burn yourself if you shoot from a retention position or from a pocket

2) Loud.

I'd rather just deal with the recoil myself.
 
Well, there's the whole bunch of reasons why it was bad on a carry gun. :p

Yea, I agree. It looks like it may not be worth the tradeoffs for just a little recoil managment.

Thanks again
 
I have it in my (well, used to be) open class IPSC gun and it worked great. But for my bussiness guns its a no, no due to reasons mentioned by some posters.
I did hold a cardboard on top of my open gun and fired it, the cardboard was torned up so bad.
 
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