StatesRightist
Member
I own several ported pistols and see questions on here from time to time about them. I thought I would post a few findings/discoveries I have made about ported guns versus the usual internet forum conclusions. Here are a few points:
1. Ported Pistols are loud: True, they are louder than guns that are identical to them. They are not however, louder than say snub nose magnums. Loud is a relative thing, they are not loud enough to make them dangerous, unless you are firing in a phone booth or by chance have a ported snub and fire it in a confined area.
2. The flash will blind you at night: Again, the flash is brighter on a ported pistol than a non-ported gun, but not so bright that it renders you blind and certainly no brighter than the afore mentioned magnum snub being fired at night.
3. You cannot fire a ported pistol from retention without setting your clothes on fire: Pure myth.
4. Porting hurts the value of the gun. Mostly true, factory porting does not hurt the value. Non-factory porting will reduce the value of the gun to collectors and those who dislike porting. It makes it harder to get the value out of the gun, harder, but not impossible. You will not get the cost of the porting back, that true.
5. Porting does not decrease recoil: Yes and no. It does reduce muzzle flip, aid in follow-up shots and force the recoil back into the hand instead of up, which most people perceive as less recoil. I personally do not find it lessens recoil, but it does have the benefits listed above, some would argue it helped the recoil of their guns immensely as well. Recoil in many senses is subjective in the sense heavy recoil to one person is manageable recoil to another.
6. Ported guns are messy and ruin the front sight: Mostly yes, but as with anything there are exceptions. Firing lead hot/fast lead rounds make a mess out of the gun. Hoppes and a lead-away rag will remove the grime, however, it will eventually remove the color off of sight inserts, if you have them. You can reduce much of the mess by using jacketed loads instead of lead. If you get nothing else out of this, this is the best tip I can give you; it sounds crazy, but it works wonderfully well, a lady at Magna-Port gave it to me. Coat the sight and the areas of the barrel around the ports with Chapstick before you go, wipe it off before you leave the range. This works wonders, the sight and those areas of the barrel coated are absolutely spotless after the Chapstick is wiped off. It will also save you 20 minutes worth of cleaning and having to regularly buy sight inserts. I never leave the Chapstick on overnight.
Those are my opinions, they are worth the price I charged you, I hope they benefit someone. Whether you want a ported gun or not, that's something you'll have to figure out yourself.
1. Ported Pistols are loud: True, they are louder than guns that are identical to them. They are not however, louder than say snub nose magnums. Loud is a relative thing, they are not loud enough to make them dangerous, unless you are firing in a phone booth or by chance have a ported snub and fire it in a confined area.
2. The flash will blind you at night: Again, the flash is brighter on a ported pistol than a non-ported gun, but not so bright that it renders you blind and certainly no brighter than the afore mentioned magnum snub being fired at night.
3. You cannot fire a ported pistol from retention without setting your clothes on fire: Pure myth.
4. Porting hurts the value of the gun. Mostly true, factory porting does not hurt the value. Non-factory porting will reduce the value of the gun to collectors and those who dislike porting. It makes it harder to get the value out of the gun, harder, but not impossible. You will not get the cost of the porting back, that true.
5. Porting does not decrease recoil: Yes and no. It does reduce muzzle flip, aid in follow-up shots and force the recoil back into the hand instead of up, which most people perceive as less recoil. I personally do not find it lessens recoil, but it does have the benefits listed above, some would argue it helped the recoil of their guns immensely as well. Recoil in many senses is subjective in the sense heavy recoil to one person is manageable recoil to another.
6. Ported guns are messy and ruin the front sight: Mostly yes, but as with anything there are exceptions. Firing lead hot/fast lead rounds make a mess out of the gun. Hoppes and a lead-away rag will remove the grime, however, it will eventually remove the color off of sight inserts, if you have them. You can reduce much of the mess by using jacketed loads instead of lead. If you get nothing else out of this, this is the best tip I can give you; it sounds crazy, but it works wonderfully well, a lady at Magna-Port gave it to me. Coat the sight and the areas of the barrel around the ports with Chapstick before you go, wipe it off before you leave the range. This works wonders, the sight and those areas of the barrel coated are absolutely spotless after the Chapstick is wiped off. It will also save you 20 minutes worth of cleaning and having to regularly buy sight inserts. I never leave the Chapstick on overnight.
Those are my opinions, they are worth the price I charged you, I hope they benefit someone. Whether you want a ported gun or not, that's something you'll have to figure out yourself.
