Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Porting Light Weight .44 Mags???

I want to buy a new pistol for fishing/bow hunting and have read a lot of posts on the topic. I have it narrowed down to a Smith 329PD or the new Taurus 444 Ultralite. The only negative I hear is they kick like hell. Would sending one of these off to be ported be worth it?

This guy seems to think its the way to go:
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BTT/is_178_29/ai_n15628929#continue

I've had one gun Mag-na-Ported, a Smith .44 4". That and rubber grips made a huge difference. I don't know about muzzle blast, as by the time I'd had it done I'd learned to wear plugs.
I haven't bothered to see if it's a negative in night shooting.
For my hunting/woods carrying use, it's Aces.

The brakes on my rifles are a lot louder and I only use them at the range. I'm not too concerned with the noise on the .44 mag since the only time I'll shoot it is if I'm at the range or fighting something big & hairy off the top of me...(Man or Beast!!!) Taming the recoil and being accurate on follow ups is my biggest concern after hearing stories about bloody hands...

Who did your magnaporting? I see a few guys advertising but it looks like you can just mail you revolver to Mag-na-port without the cylinder via regular mail if I'm reading correctly http://www.magnaport.com/shippingins.html

Mag-na-Port did the work. It's been a long time- I don't recall how I got it there (or anything else, sorry).

Matt;

Take a long, hard look at the Taurus Titanium Trackers. They can be had in .357, .41, and .44 Mag, along with .45LC. The .357 is a 7-shot, the others are 5-shot. Titanium cylinder, frame and barrel shroud, with a ss barrel and cylinder liners; i.e. danged near impossible to f'k up even in the worst conditions. Factory ported barrels, good adjustable, but rugged sights, and the funky "ribber" grip sure does work to take the sting out of any recoil. Sticker price 'round here is about $500 to $550.

For a fishin', etc. gun, I think I'd have to try REALLY hard to top one of those.

I like the Tracker Features the most but looking at the Taurus Website it says it is made out of steel and not ti? That was why I was thinking of going with the 444 Multi and porting it. There is only about a 6 oz difference between the 2. The 444 weighs 28.3 oz and the Tracker weighs 34 oz. Also the 444 is a 6 shooter while the Tracker is 5. Let me know if I don't know what I'm talking about or if 6oz is nothing to worry about??

http://www.taurususa.com/whatsnew/revolvers.cfm

Just talked to Taurus and they told me if I ported the Ultralite 444 Multi that it would void their lifetime warranty and they said they do not offer porting for that model. Guess I'm leaning towards the tracker now...the extra 6 oz may be a benifit with recoil.

Well, ain't that a kicker...

Seems they don't catalog the .44 Mag or the .45LC in the Titanium Trackers anymore...

Well, in that case, you're back to where you started. Sorry for the confusion, but I didn't know they'd dropped those two from the line-up.

Do we have an update?

Not quite sure how you narrowed down the two but between the two I'd take the 329 and put on the Sorbothane grips they have available for the x frame. I would not get it ported. I would try to get the Buffalo Bore 44's that they make for that gun. I believe it's a 255 grain HC that should do just fine.
If you are only going to shoot it when you need to what difference does the porting make. Now if you don't want to step up quite that much I've got a 629 4" LNIB for sale that would do you right fine. Have you seen the nylon holster that's made in Wasilla that holds the gun on your chest? My son uses one of those for his Redhawk. Another alternative would be a Ruger Blackhawk 4-5/8" 45 Colt. I could maybe be talked in to seperating myself from my SBH 44 Mag in 4-5/8" Stainless steel. It has a set of pachmayers available for it as well. Personally I wouldn't port something that I could handle anyway. If you are adamate about porting magnaport is the way to go. Good luck

If you want a ported gun, I'd go with the Tracker in a 41 mag. Porting will severely increase muzzle blast which is a problem with short barreled magnums anyway. You gotta figure Tauras would offer that 444 ported if it were an overall benefit to do so. Look at all their other guns they port. I like the Tauras I had (RB 454) and they are a couple hundred bucks less than the 329, which needs different grips to boot as Jack pointed out. Either would make a great choice, but you might find the porting of either creates more problems than it solves.

IMO a Ruger Blackhawk, 4 5/8", .45colt,ss would be a good choice---a little more weight, but loaded with 250 gr. bullets, It should handle all your problems.

m

I ended up with a stainless, factory ported ,.44 Mag Tracker, at 34 ounces. I think the Taurus Ti was only aound 6 ounces lighter and at $418.00 NIB I couldn't pass it up.

Get back to work........

Those are pretty good guns! I really like my titanium .357 for carry... it is REALLY loud and has a lot of sting when you shoot it, but they sure are handy to have around all the time.

Got a steel one, as well.... a lot more pleasant to shoot. Can't go wrong IMHO with either one.