to port or not to port

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ybuck44

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The barrel that is, I have a wonderful ruger Blackhawk in 41 mag. I love the gun, it shoots a solid 1.5" group at 25 yards in my hands and carries great when working out on the farm. My problem with it is the muzzle flip is terrible. Is it a reasonable idea to port the barrel in a way to alleviate this or am I just going to ruin the tact driver accuracy I have come to love in this gun?
 
I have not found porting to effect accuracy in the guns I have seen ported. Of course there are always exceptions but not the revolvers I have seen done.
 
I have a S&W 629 and a Freedom Arms mag-na-ported and both are as accurate as before porting. It did help with muzzle rise and I would do it again. Some complain about noise but I have not found that to be a problem, it will cause you to clean your front sight.
 
Blackhawk's have muzzle flip and by design, their grips rotate in the hand. But I suppose porting would help if it is to violent for you.
 
I had my S&W 4" 629-1 magna ported. A competition revolver (side matches). Really helped a lot for target acquisition.
 
Had a Ruger SBH 7 1/2" , 44 mag ported. Works well.

The red insert will need cleaning and the ports will have lead on the back edge of the port , after shooting many cast loads.

Accuracy remained the same single action. Better rapid fire , double action , with full power loads.
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Or, Bisley-ize it......

The Bisley grip changes the recoil dynamic considerably, somewhat mimicking a double-action in that the revolver will come back in the hand more than a plow handle is inclined to do. Just a thought.
 
Ugh, I would never have one ported or buy one that had been ported. Unless it was long enough that cutting the barrel back would be feasible. Porting does not reduce recoil, it redirects it. Which means less is lost in muzzle rise and transmitted straight back into your palm.
 
FWIW, I have two 41 Remington Magnum revolvers...
• Taurus® TRACKER™ Mdl 425SS4CP (4" Barrel) Ported, weighing 34oz Unloaded
• Ruger® Blackhawk®Mdl 0406 (6½" Barrel) Not Ported, weighing 41oz Unloaded

Recoil is SIGNIFICANTLY LESS in the Taurus® revolver than the Ruger®! (I estimate about 40% less). I shoot the Following ammunition in both guns...
• Remington® 210gr JSP (#RTP41MG1)
• Hornady® 210gr XTP® JHP (#9077)
• Underwood® 210gr XTP® JHP (#431)
• HSM® 230gr LSWCGC Bear Load (#HSM-41-4-N)
• Underwood® 230gr LSWCGC (#475)
• Federal® Vital-Shok® 250gr LFNHC (P41B)

There is one load that I shot in my Ruger® Blackhawk® that is too long to chamber in my Taurus® TRACKER™...
• Underwood® 265gr LWNGC (#746)

The Ruger® Blackhawk® came with finely checkered, thin, hard rubber grips. Surfing the net I found several posts stating these grips would abrade the shooters hands due to the heavy recoil. I quickly ordered a set of rosewood grips from Ruger®. These grips were thicker and fit my hand much better. (The gun still has a lot of recoil, however.) I purchased a set of Hogue® Monogrip®s that I have yet to try out in the hope that I can better handle the recoil.

If I'm still getting unmanageable recoil with the Hogue® grips I'm sending the gun to Magna-Port® and have them do their magic.

What say you?
 
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More recoil or more muzzle flip? They are not one and the same. The single action is always going to have more muzzle flip but because the geometry of the grip directs more of the recoil upwards, instead of straight back, it will have less actual felt recoil. The DA is coming more straight back, which is more likely to cause more pain and discomfort.

The atrocious rubber Hogue grip may limit muzzle rise but will increase felt recoil into the palm.
 
I have a factory-ported S&W 629 6.5" .44 mag that (to me) rises up in recoil a lot less than any of my unported .44, .45 Colt or even the .357 handguns firing really stout loads. With light plinker loads, it's not that much different shooting a ported gun than shooting unported ones.
Mag-na-porting should do the same for you with defense or hunting loads in your Blackhawk. It's a bit pricy, but if you want to reduce your muzzle flip it should help out.
 
More recoil or more muzzle flip? They are not one and the same. The single action is always going to have more muzzle flip but because the geometry of the grip directs more of the recoil upwards, instead of straight back, it will have less actual felt recoil. The DA is coming more straight back, which is more likely to cause more pain and discomfort.

The atrocious rubber Hogue grip may limit muzzle rise but will increase felt recoil into the palm.
Both! What is atrocious about the Hogue grip as I have yet to try it?
 
I have a factory-ported S&W 629 6.5" .44 mag that (to me) rises up in recoil a lot less than any of my unported .44, .45 Colt or even the .357 handguns firing really stout loads. With light plinking loads, it's not that much different shooting a ported gun than shooting unported ones.
Magna-porting should do the same for you with defense or hunting loads in your Blackhawk. It's a bit pricey, but if you want to reduce your muzzle flip it should help out.
Thank you...
 
Personally, I'm not a fan of Magnaporting a revolver... too much noise and blast. YMMV. I'm also not a fan of the traditional grips on Ruger's Blackhawks. I much prefer the Bisley Grip for anything hard kicking...

I'd suggest downloading it first. If you handload you can pretty much make what you want to get whatever job you need done. If that doesn't work for you, then I would highly recommend converting it to a Bisley...huge difference in recoil with the Bisley grip... I shoot a short barreled 44 Magnum, 3 3/4", and with stout loads it handles recoil beautifully.
 
I have decided not to port the revolver. I have shot it extensively with the Hogue® grips installed. The grips are ugly as hell but they sure do tame the recoil.

The shooting adventure continues.

Regards...
 
Good deal! Sometimes a change of grips makes a handguns' felt recoil improve for a shooter. In your case the grips were not very expensive, and it worked out well.

Most of us have made such a switch, and in some cases made several grip swaps before the right set is found. I, too have synthetic Pachmayr and Hogue grips on many of my handguns, some factory installed and some after market. They certainly don't have the panache or visual appeal of a custom set of rams horn or beautiful hardwood, that's for sure! But on the guns they are on they fit my paws well and make the guns easier to shoot and control, and to me that's the most important thing.

Have fun with the .41 BH, they are great handguns. I just joined the .41 club myself with a 7.5" Redhawk (with Hogue grips), and I am finding it to be a better caliber than I ever imagined!
 
Okay, I'm a crusty, opinionated old bastard, and my opinion is a gun barrel should have ONE hole and that hole should go from the breech to the muzzle. If it needs another hole, I don't need that gun.

On hard-recoiling guns, try different grips, different grip frames (such as a bisley), PAST gloves and downloaded ammo. Remember, if you don't like the new grips, you can always put the old ones back on. But if you don't like the ported barrel, you can't UNport it.
 
I picked up these Sile grips from CDNN and installed them on my Ruger .41 mag Black Hawk several years ago. They pretty much eliminate the grips sliding in my hand under recoil eliminating much of the muzzle flip. CDNN hasn't carried these grips for quite a while now but the ones that Pachmayer makes are almost the same.

Ruger41sm.jpg
 
Ruger41sm.jpg

I agree with Vern, the problem is more easily solved with grips you can hold on to and don't slip in your hand. These are Sile grips on my Ruger .41 mag BlackHawk but Pachmayer makes a similar grip.
 
Had a Ruger SBH 7 1/2" , 44 mag ported. Works well.

The red insert will need cleaning and the ports will have lead on the back edge of the port , after shooting many cast loads.

Accuracy remained the same single action. Better rapid fire , double action , with full power loads.
View attachment 760031
Never hear of a "double action " Ruger SBH. Did you mean SRH ?:confused:
 
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