Mag Na Port

Motown2579

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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.
 
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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.
 
Magnaport

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.........









 
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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 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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Mag-Na-Port 686 6"

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....
downsized_1219001152.jpg

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

...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.
 
MagnaPort pro's and Cons

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