A year-and-a-half ago, my friend and I went to the range and he had with him his Glock which is ported.
Not the biggest fan of Glock but I tried it and I thoroughly enjoyed it mostly because of the porting. Two weeks later I went back to my range, I rented out a Springfield that was ported and I thoroughly enjoyed it as well.
I later purchase the Sig p365 SAS and love it and my last handgun that I purchased was the Smith & Wesson M&P 2 Performance Center 5in barrel ported.
I’m now looking at the Smith & Wesson Shield plus Performance Center 3.1 ported barrel my next purchase later on this year.
So yeah, ported barrel is what I want on all my guns from now on.
I’ve got the same + on layaway…there is a down side to ported. Saw a video recently, I think James Reeves. He drew his pistol in a car and if you cannot extend your arm all the way, the gas from the porting is going in your face. I believe it was his shield + review.
With many options on the market, it’s usually whatever I find the most comfortable. I can be biased as I love a good Sig. but i carried smith and Wesson, glock, Springfield’s. They all performed well, I would depend on them if I needed to.
Mostly pier reviews I look at. Availability of parts. I don’t do a lot of custom carry guns, so aftermarket parts don’t really play a part unless it’s magazines and sights.
Porting does make a bit of a difference when it comes to recoil and muzzle flip but not much. A disadvantage is your gun gets dirtier due to the ports in the barrel and slide. I to own a first generation PC Shield 9mm and when I shoot it I will spend a little more than average time cleaning it.
Something that I never thought about until I tried it… Upgrading sights! For a long time I was just happy to adopt a new firearm, they almost always had the white dot sights…one day I brought home a used pistol that had fiber optic sights. Wow! What is this voodoo!!! I could focus so much easier! Now upgraded sights are the first thing I do.
For me it was full size grips on compact slides (Sig P320 Carry/Glock 19X, etc). I know that’s been around in the 1911 world for a long time, but when it came to the poly striker fired world and I gave it a shot I was all in. Glock 45 is now my EDC.
As for porting, I love it on my 3in .357 magnum (Taurus 692). Definitely seems to make follow-up shots quicker. But I wouldn’t pay to have a gun ported, and I’m not sure of the benefit in 9mm. As for features, I’ve always loved Henry rifles. Never really got the fuss about having a side gate until I saw one in action. Now I’m going to have to buy the new Big Boy X model.
I ended up liking the Von Stavenhagen sights (bar and dot). I was basically too cheap to change them out on a few of my firearms. I just kept practicing with them and grew to prefer them. I think I’m in the minority.
For pistols … Crimson Trace laser grips on all that they make them for backed up by Trijicon or similar sights .
Rifles … Vortex 1-4 scopes with lighted reticles to become red dots as needed and Franklin Armory or ITFD binary triggers . Most have pistol grip forend lights that impact in the center of the light circle .
Chris
