Magnaport Big Bore Snubbies

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Anthony

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For many years, Magnaport International has offered a service where they take a Smith & Wesson N-frame (any caliber) and cut the barrel back to 2 1/2 or 3 inches, port it, reduce the grip frame to K-frame dimensions, and generally slick the piece up.

Has anyone ever owned one of these guns?

Which caliber?

How did you like it?

How was the quality of the custom work?

- Anthony
 
Anthony:

No one's answered your post yet, so I'll let you know what I can.

I don't have one of their big bore N frame conversions, but I do have a 2.5" bbl Mod 66 round butt I sent to Magnaport back in the early 80s. They ported it, did an action job, narrowed and rounded the trigger, polished and jeweled the trigger and hammer, and applied a bead blasted finish to the piece. They also high polished the cylinder flutes and the cylinder release. It is, in short, the finest revolver I've ever owned, and possibly the most accurate, even with 125gr JHP .357 Magnums. The action is the smoothest I've ever tried, even better than my S&W Performance Ctr tuned 686.

Admittedly, this work was done 17 or 18 years ago, but I've never heard anything about the quality of the pistol smithing at Magnaport going south.

Good luck...
Mike
 
All Ive ever had done is the port work and ive come to the conclusion that I dont need a short barreled pistol with ports.....

If anyone wants a used 3" mdl 66 barrel with magnaports let me know.......fubsy.
 
it is a nice addition to have on a small-mid frame lg caliber handgun. am sending another one out to them this fall.
 
Mag-Na-Porting is also a nice addition of a 4.75" Freedom Arms .454 Casull!

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Schmit, GySgt, USMC(Ret)
NRA Life, Lodge 1201-UOSSS
"Si vis Pacem Para Bellum"
 
Just don't fire them puppies from the hip, ala "speed rock", unless you want to blow your hat off and mess up any facial hair. LOL

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Ne Conjuge Nobiscum
"If there be treachery, let there be jehad!"
 
One thing has always bothered me about the argument about ported handguns being bad for firing from a retention position. What about the cylinder gap on a revolver? Shouldn't this as be equally deleterious in a retention position as a ported barrel? Check out some low-light photos of a revolver being fired. Depending upon the cartridge, a whole lot of gas, unburnt powder, and jacket/lead fragments can be seen exiting the cylinder gap at high speed. Yet folks blithely talk about firing revolvers from pockets and such.
 
Ah, a thread with a topic that I actually have personal experience with. Please pardon my rambling...

Years back, when Smith and Wesson introduced the 624 .44 Spl. (in 6-1/2"), I bought one to use as a big plinker, and used it for a while with my early pin shooting and revolver-class IPSC/USPSA endeavors. It was slicked up and worked real well, but initially left unported.

About the same time, Lew Horton had a bunch of 3" 624's made up, and a friend of mine and I both bought one. He quickly took his up to Magnaport (we live locally, about 20-30 minutes away), and we compared the two "thumpers" upon its return, and the difference was quite noticable in the 3" lengths. One day at a pin match, I used his Magnaported 3" instead of my usual 6-1/2", and I thought I shot even better than usual. With the light, tapered barrel, the 624 tended to "snap" pretty good with the sharper pinloads we were handloading, but in spite of the short barrel length, the snub just seemed to "recover" a bit quicker. The next weekend, I alternately used his snub and my standard 624 for different stages of a local USPSA match and shot several great scores, with a slight edge to the snub.

I later took both my standard and snub 624's out to Magnaport and had them both ported. The snub became exactly as I remembered my friend's gun as being, and the 6-1/2" gun was a dream to shoot. I continued to shoot them for several successful years, then, stupidly, in a moment of weakness, sold them. I took home several small plaques and trophies with those revolvers, and sure miss them some days. The porting was effective, cleanly done, didn't alter the "lines" of the gun, and the Magnaport crew were all awesome to deal with.

I've been contemplating one of the short .44 Mag. Super Blackhawks especially with a trip to Magnaport already figured into the plan.

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Don LeHue

The pen is mightier than the sword...outside of arms reach. Modify radius accordingly for rifle.
 
If you look at the backstrap of a revolver right were the forcing cone ends you will see on most revolvers degrees of flame cutting, that top strap diverts the flame to the sides......
the two reasons i dont port anything smaller than a 6" revolver have to do with self defense considerations, gases and flame in the face, and graying out--now ive heard different opinions of this, so I went to an indoor range and turned the lights way down and for me the flash blinded me after the first shot, i was not affected as badly with the mdl 66 that was not ported.
For me I wont port a short barreled firearm, I havent tried a ported shotgun, and dont know how that would be for me. I will port hunting firearms or target or game firearms, and like the quality and the style of magnaporting better than any Ive used.
Ive a friend who shoots a newer 629 power port and I shoot my ole beater 629 with magnaports and the recoil reduction appears the same, but the flash from that power port is something else............
I relize that stocks havent been mentioned but on heavy kicking revolvers I like custom stocks that are designed to shed recoil, such as the herret jordan troopers, that addition alone was a tremedeous advantage in handling recoil..fubsy.
 
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