Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Magnaported revolver

I have cut and pasted some of this from another thread on the big game forum.

I shot about 40 rounds of the 240 grain load today with both my old gun, and the newer one which I bought magnaported. The Magnaport on the new one reduces muzzle jump but does not do much for actual felt recoil. I am comparing two absolutely identical guns one with the magnaport and one without.

The 310 grain Garrett bullets hit about a foot high at 40 yards with my original non-magnaport gun which is where my zero is with the 240 grain bullets. The Garrett 310's hit about 5-6" high with the magnaported version. So I know it's not just felt muzzle rise it's actually seen on the paper too! I have been using the Hogue rubber grips with it. The one real down side to the magnaport is the front sight turns black in a few shots. The soot and powder really comes out those ports. I would also highly recommend anyone with a magnaported handgun wear glasses as well. Once in a while you can feel little particles hit your face.

One odd difference between the Magnaport version and the non magnaport is the way the bullets string out. With the magnaport version they always tend to string the groups up and down. with the standard nonported barrel they tend to string right and left.

The groups from both guns are magnificent. Easily cover with the palm of your hand at 40 yards shot while sitting and elbows resting on your knees. Quite often I will have two holes touching out of the 5 shot groups. This would be a 50 yard hunting gun with no problem at all. I would not hesitate to shoot game out to 75 yards either. For those unaware this is S&W's lightest packable 4" barrel revolver. They called it the "Mountain Gun" when it was made in limited production some years ago.

It's a nice reference to have two identical guns and loads to see the real function, or lack of, from "magnaporting" a gun. I would certainly not spend the money if I wanted reduced recoil. I would if the reduction of muzzle jump was the priority. For my money I would use a padded glove for practice if recoil was a problem. I would not worry about recoil while hunting. After about ten cylinders full I start to get a blister in the webbing of my right hand. Other then that the recoil is not enough to concern yourself with.

This is certainly not a plinking gun and I will not be pumping 50 rounds a week through it. It's a stiff wrist twisting gun with Garrets ammo, with standard .44 mag loads it's manageable. The beauty of Garrets ammo is that when you return to factory level 240 grain stuff it's like a .44 special!

JJHACK,

I'm of the opinion that porting of any kind is not necessary for handguns. Actually if the handgun might be used at night for self defense the flash coming up from the ports might be disconcerting enough to get the defender in a bad way.

I have shot thousands of rounds of stout handgun ammo over the years some through ported or Magnaported guns. IMHO it is not only not worth the money it can be detrimental.

Norm,
I have a 7 1/2" unported Redhawk in .44 Magnum. It has a set of wraparound rubber Pachmyer grips on it. The 310 grain Garrets are still no treat from it. They were very accurate when I did my part. (For my low level of skill, any group less than one inch per 10 yards is great.) My 4" Magnaported 629 was a pain to clean. Cast lead kept spitting up from the slots and the soot never quite went away with scrubbing. I'd agree with the original recoil analysis: less rise, mostly straight back, a full twisting motion, but still a good amount with full power loads, expecially the Garret heavy weights.
If you want some real fun, try the Garrets in a 5 1/2" .44 Magnum Blackhawk! I thought the barrel would never stop rising!
Carson

Dear Sir,
I've read your postings about big game hunting for some time. Thank you for contributing to my education on bigbore rifles. If you shoot revolver with this much kick, not wonder you like heavy rifles!
I shoot mostly light cast target loads in my four inch .44 Magnum S&W "Mountain Gun" revolver (10 grains of Unique, 240 grain cast for 1000 fps). My memory may be faulty but Garret at one time recommended against shooting his ammo in 4 inch S&Ws (about 43 oz), and the "Mountain Gun" revoler is lighter still (about 39 oz). Next to my .44 Spl. Model 24 S&W 4" this gun is highest on my carry / field gun list.
In any case, I'd carry this load a lot and shoot it a little, sort of like a model 66 S&W with .38 wadcutters instead of heavy .357 Magnum loads.
The change in impact is interesting. I wish I had a theory for the vertical stringing. May I suggest trying light loads, that is low recoiling, with less "jet" effect, and see if the shape of the groups varies?
Carson