Anyone out there ever had work done by Mag Na Port? Does it help? Can you feel any difference? Thinking of having it done to my new 686 2 1/2 in.

I was told it is a waist of money on my 2.5. and I need my money.

My experience with porting has been that I CAN tell a difference on a 6" barrel (lessened felt recoil and flip) however with shorter barrels I Can't.
That said it does come down to the individual shooter. Try and find someone with a short barrel ported revolver and try it before you spend the money on yours.

I think mag na porting will lower the resale value of your 686.

I had Magnaport do a conversion on my 629. I intentionally deleted the porting that was included in the package for a couple of reasons.

First, I had read in ALOT of articles that said that the benefit of porting was "insignificant".

Also, after having a gun ported you decrease your buyers for that gun as most people don't want/or wont pay for a ported gun.......thereby decreasing the market for your gun and it's value.

I will never get the money I have invested in my 629 back even without having it ported but it did'nt matter to me. I wanted an heirloom gun and thats what I got.

Magnaport does beautiful work beyond porting.........

Waste of money on a short barrel revolver.Had one done,not impressed.

I have a Python that is Magnaported. I bought it that way. When I shoot lead or cast bullets the lead comes out of the ports. That's my main complaint. I wouldn't recommend it.

I love the jeweled trigger and hammer rollin....

I have a 6" 686 that was Mag Na Ported way back in the 80's. There is a little less muzzle flip, but not much less felt recoil in my opinion. The red front sight insert on mine is burnt from the powder and flash. As far as resale value goes, I guess it all depends on who's selling and who's buying.

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I have a pair of 2 1/2" model 66s.One has been Mag-Na-Ported and the other has not. There is absolutely a perceivable difference when you fire these side by side.

Only you can decide if it is worth it or not.

If you were in South Florida, I would offer you the chance to try them out.

I think Magnaporting works better as the velocity increases. I doubt that it works very well with most revolver loads.

While not directly applicable, I ported my Ruger No.1 in .458 Win Mag many years ago. I can't honestly say that I can tell any difference. All I did is, in my opinion, deface an elegant gun. Really regret doing it. Don

I bought my 25 that someone had mag na port do up and it is a real nice custom, it now sports a set of Ahrends.

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When the S&W Mod 686 first came out I purchased on for my wife. We were doing Action Shooting and she wanted a revolver to fire double action. The one I got for here was a 6" SS with adjustable Front & Rear sights. I sent it out to mag-na-port. The porting on this revolver works GREAT. She shot max reloads (off of my Dillon press) and the recoil never bothered her (very little flip). I put on a set of Pacmyer grips on it. She would fire against LE shooters all the time & cleaned their clocks. I love that pistol & the mag-na-porting job. I had no problems with it shaving lead thru the ports. 25+ years later, she is still shooting it. It has over 15000 rounds thru it, all of them were powerful rounds.

It's not Magna Port but it is customized....

This 686 6" was compensated by a local gunsmith. This is one of my wife's revolvers.

...revolvers with Magnaporting; a Ruger Super Blackhawk, 7.5" barrel, a S&W Model 29-5, 5" barrel, and a Model 29-2 with a 4" barrel. It seems to help a great deal on the Ruger, and somewhat less on the Smiths. I agree that it is more of a help in longer barrels where muzzle flip is more pronounced.

+1 on the leading. I only shoot jacketed bullets in any Magnaported barrel.

I had this 629-4 PowerPort model done by MP several years ago. They did great work and I did not need porting as the Powerport model already has porting that uses one large port. Triggerjob is wonderful, smooth as glass DA pull and glass rod breaking single action. I also opted for some cosmetics as well. Pinstriping and Velvet Hone finish (fine granular glass beading) I could have done without the mirror polish hammer/trigger but it was included with the trigger package, so i went with it.

Do I think porting alone (or any of these customizations for that matter) decrease resale value? Generally speaking, yes, but possibly not to the right buyer. Will one recover the value of the custom work + the price of the gun? Again, I highly doubt it.

Also it depends on the collectability factor of the gun. If it's something with really classic lines, like a Blued Model 29, it ruins the collectability and destroys it's original condition. You will likely only sell it to someone who's interests lie in shooting it and also someone who does not know that buying such a gun will be harder to re-sell when the time comes.

I have had experience with the Magnaport Quad porting (two top trapezoids + 2 side ovals behind that) and I do think it works to reduce muzzle flip. As with all porting, it's degree of effectiveness vary's with the pressure of the round being fired. My quad ports are on a FA 454 Casull and with that round at full-tilt velocity, it definitely works.

IC

Porting reduces felt recoil and muzzle flip. The longer the barrel, the better it works, and the bigger the ported area, the more effective it is, e.g., quadra porting is better than just dual porting.

I've experienced it on my own revolvers. And porting has never caused lead spitting for me, but that may be because all my porting was done by the gun manufacturer or a reputable company rather than some local well intentioned amateur.

I love my Model 637, 2.125" barrel PowerPort with compact-sized Pach grips and Hornady CD +P loads. The single large port at the end of the barrel doesn't dirty up my drift-adjustable front white dot sight which sits behind the port. The barrel is too short to produce anywhere near the maximum effect of porting, but it's better than no porting.

Louder to a shooter? Don't know, I wear hearing protection.

Less velocity? No, not compared to the normal velocity from the slightly shorter length barrels on standard S&W snubbies. Besides, any loss of velocity compared to a non-ported barrel of the same length would be insignificant; less than the differences in velocities caused by differences in B/C gaps.

More flash in low light? Not when I use Hornady CD loads, which is all I use anyway.

Better control for follow up shots? Yes.

What do you plan on doing with this gun is the real question imo?

Carry? Don't MP it then. There can be issues with retention drills (or retention) in firing close to the body where you get blast effect in your own chin. Same for firing inside of a vehicle and seeing afterward a nice lil burn/blast mark on your ceiling liner (have seen this personally). And in any event, you ARE going to have more blast out of that 2.5" than either a 4" or 6". Do you want to divert some upward?

Range work? Your call but I think the previous posters comments (and there were a lot of them you'll note) about reducing potential resale value have solid merit. I recently passed on a 629-1 3" just because it had been MP'd and I didn't feel I would ever get the money back out of it. If you think of the persons who have commented negatively so far vs those in the positive, I think you have a good idea how "the market"will break down should you decide to sell. And the 686 2.5" is a desirable revolver.

Just my .02.

don't do it.

Thanks for all the info. Probably will skip the porting. Roller, those are fantastic grips. Where did you get them?

Thanks, they are factory combats that came on another 629 I have. I used them until I could locate another pair for my Magnaport 629.

These are the grips that it currently wears.....

I have a 66-3 that is Magna-Ported and has the same muzzle treatment as the 629 above. The hammer and trigger have been polished. I bought it this way.

I also have a recently purchased 66 no-dash that is original without Magna-Porting.

The 66-3 Magna-Porting helps with muzzle flip and felt recoil. My wife likes shooting the 66-3 but won't touch the no-dash. She says it hurts when she shoots full loads.

Years ago I had a 4 inch 66 Magnaported. With full house magnum loads, I noticed a considerable reduction in felt recoil and muzzle flip. Not much with target loads. I shot alot of WC target loads and the soot from those loads would blacken the red ramp but it would wipe off easily. The bottom edges of the red ramp also curled in some from the flash but not to bad. Muzzle flash in the dark was noticeable. If I was intending on shooting alot of hot or heavy loads, I would do it again. If shooting mostly target loads, I probably wouldn't. As far as resale, I don't think porting would reduce the value enough to cause me not to do what I wanted. After all, any modification is to make the gun what you want it to be, not what someone else said they would buy or not buy.

Don't know how directly this relates to the discussion, but I have a 627 V-Comp and mostly shoot 38 Special from it. I experience absolutely no difference in recoil when changing between the removable Compensator and the standard barrel cap. Not sure about full power loads - might have to try it some day.

__________________
My sgntr is mor thn 30 chrctrs

I don't own a short barrel revolver with porting but have shot a few...the bang is done so quickly I didn't notice any difference.
However like someone else stated earlier wear Safety Glasses!
The particles coming out of the ports with full power loads were hot and bothered me to the point I didn't care to shoot them. Along with reducing it's value to me it's not worth it.

Just my .02

Groo here
I have a few magna-ported guns from 357 to 454 revolvers
and TC's.
On an SSK handcannon it is about required,
on the FA 454 it is most welcome [I have cut my hand on the frame
lumps of single actions]
on 44mag I find that I don't needed it on longer barrels
but on my 3in Trailboss it works very well.
and on 357's --works wonders on an SP-101 2 1/4 in [4 port] I set this up to be a hunting
backup gun and have shot 200 gr monster loads from it- heavy but boy do the drill deep!
The thing is that it will do little for the kick, the big thing is the rotation.
Ps, this is with magnum /full power loads, the light stuff
just does not need it....
PPS As an old revolver shooter I never had a problem with the noise,blast or hip shooting
drills as some have because the blast from the BC gap is so big with magnums that
any change the porting might cause is not a factor-- even at night
we even used the flash to help sight the target at night for followup shots...

I don't need any Magnaports on my 2.5" 686, but I bought a 3" 629 that came from the factory with double Magnaports, and it recoils about the same as a 4", which is to say not too bad.

On a 686, I wouldn't do it.

I have a 6" S&W 629-1; an Andy Cannon RSBH 7 1/2"; and a 4 5/8" Mag-Na-Port Custom Tomahawk RSBH; all are mag-na-ported.
I'm glad all three are, it sure doesn't negatively affect my shooting and it seems to help the felt recoil and muzzle jump.
Around here the process seems to be a bonus to purchasers, but maybe they're usually shooters not sophisticated collectors.

I had it done on several of my revolvers and it works.

My friend has a similar 3" LH 29 and side by side when I shoot my 265g cast rounds out of them, his hurts like blue blazes and mine is controllable and not harsh.

"Insignificant" affect on my 629 --- I regret the considerable expense for negligible result...

i know that this is an old Thread,but felt a need to share my experiences. I looked at tge S&W 500 and n460 mag hand guns. Shot both with and without. With porting is better in fact much better. I have a Browning Highwall B78 in 7mm mag, 26 inch barrel. I had it sent to Magnaport to have it done after shooting a 308 my friend had sent to them as well. It helped his rifle. He and i shot my B78 7mm magbefore and after with the same 150 grain handloads. Definitely better on the browning as we both noticed a better shooting gun much easier on the shoulder. A muzzle break would be better but that would butcher such a beautiful rifle. The erade off is Magnaporting is less effective but nowhere near as loud as a muzzle break. Porting and brakes work better and more effective on magnums and longer barrels. Well worth the 150 plus return shipping. Less muzzle flip and noticably less felt recoil as well.

Have ported Model 19 Snub. I personally like the cannon-like noise it makes and the slight recoil reduction. Notice how front sight has scorched looking marks. During my last shooting session it actually blew the front sight insert out.

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I have two Mag-Na-Ported revolvers, both are Rugers. One is my 7-1/2-inch .44 Redhawk, and this one has the four-port job that I asked and paid for them to do. I can't really compare how well it works to a non-ported .44 Magnum, but I'm happy that I did it and I have zero regrets.

The other is a 4.2-inch barreled GP-100 in .327 Federal Magnum. This is a gun that I found in my LGS and the work was someone else's idea. I can say that if it were me, I wouldn't have even thought to do this to a .327 Federal and if I could turn back time and decide one way or the other with no cost, I wouldn't have it done. Again, not having another .327 Federal just like it, I can't say how well it works.

I also can't say that it really bothers me either. I would agree that unless/until you find the perfect buyer that would specifically want the porting, it does not enhance "value" and for many, it is a permanent and non-OEM alteration. There are excruciatingly fee non-OEM, permanent alterations that ever enhance "value."