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S & W 500 compensators/ported barrels
Stadium
Member Posts: 15 ✭✭
I've noticed the options that exist for the S&W 500 in terms of ported barrels and interchangeable barrel compensators. I understand that a degree of muzzle rise can be addressed by porting or interchangeable compensators. What I don't understand are the merits and trade-offs in terms of choosing a fixed ported 500 vs an interchangeable compensator for porting. Any comments would be appreciated.
Comments
If you got a pair dangling down by your knees, and recoil/muzzle rise doesn't faze you. Shoot it without the comp.
I dislike Muzzle breaks, and compensators with a passion, all because of the noise and blast(it is not too bad on some rifles, as the blast is further away).
Long story short, my wife got me a S&W 500 a couple years ago for Christmas. It was one specially made in the Custom Shop/Performance Center. It has a 6 1/2", unported barrel. To this day, I have only shot about 30 rounds thru it, and that is not even two full boxes. It has a tremendous amount of muzzle flip, and recoil.
I am sure the ported version, or the one with the replacable ports, would have helped a bit with the recoil...however, I would rather have the recoil than the blast.
So there you have it.
Best
EDIT 1
quote:I'll take muzzle flip over the straight back recoil of most ported guns, especially handguns.
Charlie...the compensators don't just reduce flip...they reduce the straight back recoil too. The 500 is brutal with the compensator, let alone, without. Yes, it can be loaded down, and still be effective for what I want to stop DRT. I do not need to stop a tank.
If you have never shot a 460, or 500, I do encourage you to try both...it will make you see things in a different light, and hopefully not the light of the emergency room, while getting stitches.
Best
My experience was with a TC 45-70 pistol 14" loaded hot with big bullets. It was a buddies that had it magnaported. I shot before and after. Never much after as I'm wrist damaged. The straight back recoil made it just too painful.
If you decide you don't like or need it, you can remove the interchangeable one (Smith calls this the "standard compensator").
One possible reason to remove it is to reduce flash from your plane of sight for low light shooting (eg dusk).
Also, if I'm reading the website right, MSRP on the standard compensator models is about $70 less than the true barrel ported ones.
Edit: Responding to above, see here:
She's obviously an experienced shooter, but I think the video proves that its possible to master this gun, if you really want to do that. If you search youtube, there's a video of Jerry Miculek (world champion revolver shooter) putting out five factory loads from one of these in one second flat!
I've shot this, and I didn't find recoil to be any worse than say, heavy (eg the Buffalo Bore 300 grain "bear killer") .44 magnum rounds from a conventional revolver. The heavy weight of the revolver just soaks up a lot of recoil, of course as does the compensator.
I didn't want to opine too much here, because its getting away from the actual question, but since we've opened up that door, in my opinion:
-I'm not saying it can't help, but if you really "need" a compensator for a gun like this, what you probably need more is a smaller gun.
-Most people (>90%) of people who buy these don't really need them. A lot of people buy these, put a box of ammo through the gun, and then never shoot it again. Noise/blast is unpleasant, and not only do your hands and ears hurt after shooting these, so does your wallet!
I "get" the novelty value, but apart from just "ha has", the ONLY real world purpose of a gun like this is to kill LARGE (>300lb) animals. That means large game and possibly brown bear defense. If you aren't going to do that, you probably don't need this gun.
-If you're interested in loading this down, what you probably want instead of the 500 is the Smith .460, which will let you fire factory loaded .454s and .45 Colts. If you're ONLY going to be shooting loaded down rounds, well, see about about not needing this to begin with!