OK, maybe it’s time to get serious; but, this is a cantankerous subject; and I’m not overly fond of getting into arguments on an internet gun forum.
I’m a Certified Pistol Instructor; (I know, ‘
big deal’.) and, from where I usually stand, (just behind and off a shooter’s right-hand shoulder) I’ve often watched someone shoot, and thought to myself that getting a student to handle a pistol correctly is a lot like teaching a kid how to eat hot oatmeal cereal!
If the older kids have nothing positive to say about eating hot oatmeal then the younger kids are not going to like eating it, either;
BUT, if a youngster never hears anything else except how good hot oatmeal cereal is, then, he’s simply not going to have a problem with eating hot oatmeal. (Makes sense, right!)
Now, about Mag-na-porting: I’ve got an entire gun safe full of ported pistols; some are revolvers; and some are semiautomatics. Many of them I’ve been shooting for more than 35 years. So, it’s safe to say that I’m very well experienced with what a shooter can, and cannot do with a ported pistol.
TO BEGIN WITH - AND JUST LIKE EVERYTHING ELSE IN LIFE - YOU’VE GOT TO KNOW HOW TO USE A PARTICULAR TOOL, CORRECTLY, IN ORDER TO USE IT WELL.
In all the time that I’ve been using
MUZZLE-PORTED barrels I’ve never singed my eyebrows - Not even once! Neither have I ever lost either my visual acuity, or my night vision, and/or the sight-picture! I should add that I’ve never noticed any louder-than-usual muzzle blast. It might be there; but I haven’t noticed it. The pistol’s always going to go, ‘
Bang’ - Right! Neither have I ever set my clothes on fire. (What highly creative idiot came up with that one?)
In my experience the subjects of: (1) ‘
pistol barrel muzzle-porting’, or (2) ‘
pistol barrel AND slide porting’, and/or (3) ‘
pistol barrel MUZZLE-COMPENSATING’ are some of the most confused and misunderstood handgun topics on (almost) everybody’s favorite firearms website. Frankly, I don't know where the gunzine writers come up with a lot of this stuff about ported pistols being too loud, or too dangerous, or too blinding.
GUNS ARE LOUD; SOMETIMES DEBILITATINGLY LOUD; AND I EXPECT GUNS TO BE LOUD, TOO!
Moreover, compensated muzzles are the loudest of all. (Because I started shooting at a very young age and with a group of Korean War veterans who never would have, so much as, dreamed of wearing ear muffs, I’ve got the tinnitus to prove it, too! Argh!)
I suppose it’s, ‘
possible’ to burn your clothing when firing from retention; but, in over 50 years of doing this sort of thing I don’t know anyone - not even one single shooter - who has! (It's, also, ‘
possible’ to shoot skeet with a pistol and occasionally hit something, too!)
If you hold a ported pistol at center-chest as well as either under your chin, or in front of your face -
YUPPERS! - you might splatter your face with unburned powder and forcing cone residue. You might also singe your eyebrows, or hit yourself in the nose with the back of the slide! All these things
ARE possible. The salient point is that no pistolero who has acquired experience using a ported pistol is going to make one of these pathetically obvious mistakes!
When firing from retention a ported pistol shooter has to be savvy enough - savvy enough - to slightly cant the pistol away from his body. (Brilliant, huh!) This is easy enough to do
IF you know how; but, …… most people have never even thought about doing it!
Proper technique with a ported pistol requires a shooter to take a step backwards before firing from retention at center chest. and, then, push the muzzle out and towards the target. Fire from the solar plexus rather than from directly in front of the heart, or (worse) from directly underneath the chin. (Again brilliant, huh!)
Can’t do any of these things because there’s just no room, you got rushed, or pushed off balance? OK, then it’s time to go H2H! Use an instep to rake the attacker’s shins, or a thumb to gouge an eye!
There’s, both, a right time and a wrong time to attempt to use a pistol. Me? I don’t like trying to reach for a gun when an attacker is already right on top of me. ‘
Why?’ Because if the other guy is close enough to be able to successfully grab my pistol, then, that is
NOT the right time for me to be attempting to draw a gun. (I need to do something else!)
So much for all of the usual nonsense about the imagined disadvantages of using a ported pistol at extreme close range. Instead, of goofing around with all of this too popular pistol gunfighting baloney it’s important to remember to use
BOTH the right tool, and the proper technique for whatever tactical situation you might suddenly find yourself in.
Now, is the front sight going to become, ‘
sooted over’? More nonsense! I’ve been doing this for (What?) more than 35 years; and, in all that time, I’ve never had my front sight go entirely black; and, even if it did start to, ‘
soot over’ there ain’t nothing wrong with a black front sight; and, so far, I’ve yet to completely lose a tritium dot, or a red bar on one of my ported pistols.
Is a shooter going to be blinded by the port-flash? No, I don’t think this could happen, even, with black powder; and, no again, nothing like this has ever happened to me! Any flash that shows up is going to be too brief, too sporadic, and the shooter’s concentration on
BOTH his front sight picture, AND the target will cause him to tend to, ‘
look through’ any momentary distraction.
(Besides, not all gunpowder flashes in the same way; and, of those powders that might tend to, the flash is sure to be intermittent. Some rounds will flash more; and other rounds will flash less! Just remember that: If you’re doing things right then you’re going to be looking at your front sight and the target, and
NOT at the flash.)
In more than three decades of using muzzle-ported pistols and doing these things day after day, after day, I have never - not even once - lost either my visual acuity, or night vision while firing a muzzle-ported pistol; and I’m talking about firing well over 30 or 40 thousand rounds of (pistol) ammunition!
Does pistol muzzle-porting work? (We are
NOT talking about barrel muzzle-compensation, here, OK!) This topic is strictly limited to pistol barrel muzzle-porting. (Got it!) Yes, it definitely works, and often works very well; but a lot of the performance characteristics depend upon: the size, the shape, the location, and the number of ports.
For instance: The type of large (really large) muzzle-ports that S&W uses on many of their magnum revolvers works exceedingly well for both slow fire, and single shots. I don’t use large ports on my pistols; I use long thin EDM slits, instead. '
Why?' Because it’s a little known fact that:
THE FASTER A MUZZLE-PORTED PISTOL SHOOTER FIRES THE MORE RECOIL AND FRONT SIGHT DWELL TIME REDUCTION IS GOING TO TAKE PLACE.
A large muzzle port isn’t needed in order to control the, ‘
front sight bounce’ on a muzzle-ported pistol; but, multiple slits might be. Moreover, ‘
slit-ports’ are more desirable to have on a semiautomatic pistol. I’ve talked to several different gun manufacturers about this; and, generally speaking, typical recoil reduction is anywhere from 8 to 15 percent while a similar reduction in slide momentum; and/or (when it’s done correctly) operational gas volume is reduced by no more than 5 to 8 percent.
Finally, a little more needs to be said about noise: Is the discharge from a ported pistol going to be too loud? I have to wonder: ‘
Too loud to whom - to whom?’
At the range a shooter is going to be wearing ear muffs; and on the street I very much doubt that - no matter what degree of, ‘
auditory exclusion’ might be experienced - the sound of a ported pistol going off will be perceived as being too loud.
(This is
NOT true for centerfire rifles, and shotguns, though, OK! Whenever I’m standing close to, or in line with the muzzle the, ‘
boom’ from a CF rifle, or shotgun will rock me, every time!)
With this said, I’ve walked away from any number of shooting experiences where I wasn’t wearing hearing protectors of any kind; and, for whatever mysterious reasons, my hearing remained completely normal and unaffected.
(‘
Why’ this happens is a mystery that both myself, and several other shooters I know are unable to explain; but I’ve had it happened several times to me; and I know of a couple of other shooters who’ve experienced the same sort of auditory exclusion. None of us know, ‘
Why?’)
I’m going to close by posting a picture of my most recently acquired 9 x 19mm pistol. There are all different types of pistol porting. Me? If for no other reason than having an absolutely minimal effect on slide momentum, I prefer to use only pistols that are muzzle-ported.
My slit muzzle-ported EDC Model 19 -
A slit muzzle-port after firing 100 rounds of filthy dirty WWB!
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