First hand experiences with Magna Porting

[montana_native]

They claim no velocity loss and no increase in noise? How true are these claims? I am especially interested in how it works on overbore type cartridges, like a 7mm Ultra Mag or similar.



Thanks in advance.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

First off no muzzle brake makes a gun louder. Some focus the gas back and makes it seem louder. The same amount of gas comes out no matter how it comes out. As far as a muzzle brake changing velocity- how can it unless the bullet is hitting it? One thing to think about a properly designed muzzle brake has a chamber to vent gases to the rear, in effect pulling the gun forward, that chamber has to have an exit hole just over bullet dia so that it kinda seals off as the gases exit the chamber. Magna port have always had pretty good marketing campaigns throwing things out there that are true but dont help you if you know anything about proper muzzle brake function. So- to make a muzzle brake work the gas must be vented to the back with a chamber and a properly sized exit hole. Does punching holes in a factory barrel accomplish these tasks?

 

[BoydAllen]

Dusty,
With all due respect, generally, muzzle brakes make rifles louder, sometimes a lot louder. We do not need any special instrumentation to determine this, we have our ears, although it can come in handy when we want to be more precise in explaining just how much we regretted not having better hearing protection, or even not having it on, when a cease fire ended and the fellow one bench over was shooting a magnum fitted with a brake. Here is a very good article on the subject.
http://precisionrifleblog.com/2015/08/07/muzzle-brakes-sound-test/
I hope that my disagreeing has not been too disagreeable.
Boyd

 

[savagedasher]

They claim no velocity loss and no increase in noise? How true are these claims? I am especially interested in how it works on overbore type cartridges, like a 7mm Ultra Mag or similar.



Thanks in advance.

I don't see it is possible . Larry

 

[Dans40X]

Magna Porting is accomplished w/a plunge EDM w/ part submerged in die electric fluid(non conductive) to burn slots/holes to shape of electrode w/out heat distortion.basically.
Magna Porting does reduce muzzle flip but does not reduce recoil.
Almost impossible to time Magna Porting to rifling resulting in a copper plasma creating......abortion.
The Magna Porting works well on smooth bore shotgun Bbls/gauge sleeves/inserts though!

A ported brake aka KDF w/ forward taper design does reduce recoil.

Clam Shell &/or Fishgill brakes direct gases aft to counteract recoil more efficiently...aka Howitser/777 Brake.

Brake efficiency is dependent of bore clearance/exit diameter.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Boyd i have a decibel meter- ill be glad to let you borrow it. A muzzle brake is perceived to be louder because the sound/gases are directed to the side/ toward the shooter. Now if you put the decibel meter at the shooters head the brake is louder no doubt but it has the same noise its all in where its directed. I have tested many designs of brakes and sound at the shooter to help with hunting rifles so my shooters dont have to wear ear muffs while hunting

 

[bobinpa]

They claim no velocity loss and no increase in noise? How true are these claims? I am especially interested in how it works on overbore type cartridges, like a 7mm Ultra Mag or similar.



Thanks in advance.

I bought a 338 RUM a few years ago. The seller claimed the gun shot great and had little recoil because it was a ported barrel. He was selling it because "he lost interest in it". I bought the gun and got some of his loads with it. The gun was shooting 1.5 moa at 100 yards and it kicked like a mule. I cleaned the barrel thoroughly thinking it was fouled, but it didn't improve. I tried reloading for it but I couldn't do any better. Finally I had my gunsmith bore scope it. The barrel was as fine as a factory barrel could be. I had him cut the porting off and install a muzzle brake and make a thread protector, just in case I wanted to hunt without the brake. My first trial run with the original owners' loads gave .75 moa consistently and it recoiled like a 30-06. My loads have repeatedly given me .5 moa and better. Maybe it's all a coincidence, but that's my experience with a ported barrel. I'd never have it done. I honestly think he had the barrel ported and it "ruined" the gun for him, which is why he lost interest.

 

[Cold Bore]

Dusty and Boyd.....

You are both right, and both wrong.

I think Dusty finally acknowledged the reality though, while Boyd was correct, just not phrasing it accurately.

No, a brake (or porting) will not increase raw noise levels. HOWEVER, from the shooters position and perspective, they definitely increase what is HEARD by the shooter.

A rifle puts out the same sound, regardless. But if you are in front of it, the noise is definitely louder than if behind it. A brake just helps to redirect and send some of that noise in a different direction.

 

[1newmexkid]

I had a 300 Win Mag Magna Ported about 18 years ago. I really don't like recoil and the porting turned the 300 into a pussy cat. Much nicer shooting from the bench during sighting in. However, it necessitated the wearing of ear plugs around my neck while hunting. Didn't take but a few seconds to insert them and fire away. Hunted elk many years like that and never missed taking a shot.

 

[ryanjay11]

They claim no velocity loss and no increase in noise? How true are these claims? I am especially interested in how it works on overbore type cartridges, like a 7mm Ultra Mag or similar.



Thanks in advance.

I have 2x 7 rem mags that have had this done. They are louder than a non-braked rifle, but the difference in recoil is pretty impressive. They both shoot like a 243. I can't speak to the velocity loss because I do not have before/after chrono results.

 

[dennisinaz]

A ported brake aka KDF w/ forward taper design does reduce recoil.

Clam Shell &/or Fishgill brakes direct gases aft to counteract recoil more efficiently...aka Howitser/777 Brake.

Brake efficiency is dependent of bore clearance/exit diameter.

Recent studies have show that the bore clearance has little to do with muzzle brake efficiency. The study took brakes that were bored to be used with 308 caliber rifles and installed them on .223 caliber rifles. The same level of reduction was realized. The same study compared a couple dozen muzzle brakes for sound signature, recoil reduction and accuracy/consistency effects. Recoil reduction was almost entirely driven by muzzle brake design more than anything else.

Years ago I designed a brake and had a local aerospace shop make a few up for me as I had a manual machine and they had multi axis machining centers that could do whatever (and they did if for free!). I, not knowing anything about muzzle brake design, copied my largely from the brake on the Apache helicopter as the plant that makes them is 3 miles from my house. I played with bullet clearance and found that having only 3-4 thousands clearance made it difficult to get a bullet to shoot many times. Opening it up to as much as 12 thousands clearance had NO detectable difference in recoil reduction (300 WBY magnum) and made it easy to tune loads. Eventually I decided that it wasn't worth the increase in noise (to the shooter and bystanders) so I abandoned the use of muzzle brakes altogether.

I have shot thousands of rounds from handguns that are ported with no reduction in velocity or accuracy that I could see. They weren't particularly accurate pistols so this is quite subjective. I have shot one rifle with magna porting and it shot terrible but the owner claimed that it shot great back in the day! It does reduce muzzle flip and makes a second shot easier. It is also louder than not being ported.

 

[Biggabe]

Years ago I installed a hydraulic recoil reducing butt plate on a Remington 700 Sendero 7 mag. Tamed the recoil great, but the forened still came of the sandbags. Had it magnaported and while I can't really say it helped recoil or made the gun louder it did tame the muzzle rise where the gun would come straight back. Making for a quicker follow up shot.

 

[Changeling]

I guess in a way it does reduce noise ! You'll probably become somewhat DEAF, meaning what you hear will be greatly reduced from using it.

 

[Paddyd]

I have a Super Blackhawk .44Mag that has been Magnaported. Honestly, There is really no difference between it and a non ported bbl as far as I can tell. The only thing I see that it does is splatter lead from cast bullets on the front sight base. I'm sure it does some good, but not enough that is noticeable to me when shooting it.

 

[BountyHunter]

Magna porting has worked great for me with large caliber handguns, however on a rifle go with a quality muzzle brake with no holes on the bottom for hunting. Bench shooting it does not matter, but with holes on the bottom for hunting you will kick up a dust storm and a half.

PRS shooting website just did an extensive study of muzzle brakes on both noise and recoil reduction. They found out that loud ones are better at recoil and quieter ones are not as effective for recoil. Just google them and look at the study.

Darrell Hollands Radial brake was one of the top 3 overall and the one I have used for quite awhile.

 

[Yagingaboy]

I had my 300 win mag magnaported years ago. I would never do it again, ever. It did nothing to reduce recoil and I think it made my accuracy go all to heck. I talked to a gunsmith (retired now but he was extremely good in his day) that said he has seen them where there was significant amounts of copper fouling down in the porting cuts (mine had a small degree of this). On all of those rifles the owners claimed that they had noticed a significant amount of accuracy degradation after porting. He would cut the ported section off the barrel and recrown. The accuracy would return after that. He had a 1 gallon galvanized pale half full of barrel ends he had cut off magnaported barrels. That was just one gunsmith's opinion of them though. YMMV.

However, I had them do a trigger job on the rifle I had ported at the same time and they did a WONDERFUL job on that. They only charged me $50 at the time and it is the smoothest #3 trigger I have ever felt. Perfect for the hunting I do with that rifle.