Barrel Porting

[HEAD0001]

It is hard to put a % reduction on the recoil. However some say as much as 60%. It really depends on the quality of the brake. And different type breaks are more or less useful on different types of barrels, and different types of firearms.

For example, if you shoot prone then you do not want a brake that ports the blast in every direction., You would not want the gases bouncing dirt all over the place. So normally when you see "Tactical" brakes they are only on the sides.

Alot of people use "Magna Porting". This is a type of brake that is directed toward muzzle flip control, and send most of the gases in an upward motion. This is done on a lot of handguns.

The best way to find the best brake for your particular rifle and your particular type of shooting is to talk to a competant gunsmith who specializes in the type of firearm you are wanting to brake.

Some shooters do complain about the extra noise if they are shooting next to you. And the porting does make the rifle louder for shooters who are next to you. But why would they be on the firing line without hearing protection?? Makes no sense to me?? I think it is more of a suprise factor, and not so much the level of noise. Tom.

[Hobie]

I have seen no ports on small arms preferable to not porting. It is an unavoidable necessity on .50+ cal arms like the Barrett. You have GOT to wear hearing protection as does your "assistant gunner".

[fordwannabe]

I like hard kicking handguns...but when I got my Ruger SBH with the 4 1/2 in barrel with my handloads it was ugly. I mean I shot 5 shots and said the H with this(yes I know I could have backed off the powder but we all know that wasn't going to happen). I sent it out right away and am very glad I did..just wish I'd quit shootin the ejector rod housing off the dumb thing. No experience with porting long arms. If I'm going to get beat up it ain't gonna be from a gun, hence shooting old levers and 06's. Tom

[Leverluver]

I had a 338 Win Sako and I had an answer system brake put on it. It cut the recoil down to less than a 270W. With the forearm just setting in the palm of my hand it would not rise off my hand at ignition. The bad news is that I could not tolerate the noise. It didn't matter if you had a head muffs on, the sound traveled through my skull bone. I sold it. I could not even conceive of firing it under a hunting situation without double hearing protection. Also had a Super Blackhawk that I had magnaported. Wish I had never done it. It didn't reduce recoil a bit and it was a lead eating nuisance. Jacketed bullets were fine but not lead. So I batted 0 for 2. No more for me.

[southernutah]

I will never have another firearm with ports. if ya can't handle the recoil find some thing smaller. BTW some of the new recoil pads are great for hard hitters.