Hi all,

I was thinking about getting the above PC Shield in .40. Does the porting actually do anything ? Is the recoil mitigated at all? Any less muzzle flip?

Thanks in advance !

K

I believe you also asked the question on the M-P forum.
I have had a PC 40 Shield for almost 4 years now.
The porting DOES help on the .40, not so much on the other calibers.
My PC in .40 feels more like a 9mm.

I have shot an unported .40, and recently I got a ported 40 to 9mm conversion barrel for my PC from Remsport.
I was surprised as I thought the ported 9mm barrel would be softer shooting than it was, as I said, the porting doesn't help the 9mm as much as it does in .40.

On every thread about the porting on PC models, some will jump on to tell you how bad of an idea the porting is, that it will catch your clothes on fire, blind you for hours, take way, way longer to clean, etc.
Don't believe any of that, those guys don't own one or they would know those things aren't true.
Listen to the guys that own one, all will say they like it.

The flash that comes out of the two tiny ports is way, way less than what comes out of the muzzle, check out night firing videos on You Tube.
The ports are angled, even shot held against your hip, no particles are going to hit your face or ignite your clothes.
It takes me all of ten extra seconds to wipe away the soft powder fouling inside the slide and around the barrel on the ports.
A few guys that have the PC have said they have to periodically wipe some carbon off of their front sight, but I've never had that issue, and my TFO sight is a lot closer to the ports than the factory sight is.

Are the PC models that much better than non PC ? Not much.
The fiber optic sights are nice in the daytime, but I've since replaced the sights on all my M&P's with sights that are both Tritium AND fiber optic.
And while the trigger on the PC's are nicer than plain models, the trigger on my PC is not near as good as the one that came on my .45 Shield.

The accuracy on my PC, with both .40 and 9mm barrels, is decent, but not near as good as the .45 Shield, and the .45 is less picky about which ammo you use.

I would say, unless you really need to have a .40, get a .45 Shield instead. Mild recoil even without porting, and groups like a full size pistol.
My .40 ( and 9) groups as well as the .45 at close up, but beyond 15-20 yards, the .45 jumps ahead.
I like the .45 so well, I'm thinking of selling the PC 40/9mm and getting another .45.

But I'd lose a lot trying to sell the PC, I have TFO's on it now, 4 mags for the .40 barrel, 5 mags for the 9mm barrel, and a TRL-6 laser and a couple holsters. So I'll probably just keep it.

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