What is the significance of the letter in relation to the type of compensator?

What is the significance of the letter in relation to the type of compensator?

TenMan,

I can take a shot at one of them. I own a V-comp. The slab barrel is v shaped in cross section, making the compensator V shaped as well.

fly rodder

The F comp has one large comp hole on top of the barrel at the end. The K comp is the same thing as magna porting but with two on each side.

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What about the 60 ET-comp? It's a PC gun, looks like the 66 F-comp from the pictures but there isn't a good picture of the comp. There is also the 586 L-comp. I think I may also have seen an M-comp, but I'm not sure, I'll have to look.

Perhaps in the case of the 586 it refers to L-frame compensated.

Let me give this a shot.

ET is the internal S&W designation for a stainless target J frame.

F the a stainless K frame.

K and L are self explanatory.

Unfortunately, the V is the fly in the ointment. As fly rodder mentioned, I believe it was picked due to the shape of the compensator.

I hope that helps.

This isn't correct. The only difference between the two is the material used in construction. The factory's internal designation for the stainless K frame is "F", while "K" is used for carbon steel. so, the F Comp is the M66, while the K Comp is the M19, otherwise they are exactly the same in configuration - i.e., they all have the large expansion chamber style comp. The PC (and regular production line) has used several designation for this style of comp unfortunately, from just Comp, to Carry Comp to Powerport (i.e., M686 Powerport).
The magna porting style is usually called just that, or in some early models they referred to them as quad porting, but later quad ports were internally done - not Magna ported. Can be confusing.

The X-Comp designations (L,K,F,V) usually refers to the frame/model, but as noted the V throws this askance, since the V is talking about the shape of the comp/barrel.

Pics of K/F Comps are in this thread:
http://smith-wessonforum.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/5301039...451046081#1451046081

Here are pics of the L Comp (M586) and Carry Comp (M686) L/G frame models (both using the large PowerPort style comp):