Shotgun Muzzlebrake...?

S

silent_warrior

New member
I've been pondering a tactical/home defense shotgun for a while now, but I'm the kind of guy who likes my ducks all in a row before I open up my wallet. I'm leaning 870, but was reading about the FN Tactical Pump Shotgun the other day, and while I can't say I fell in love with the gun, I do really like the ported barrel idea. For those of you who don't know what I mean, the FN's barrel has four rows of small holes at the end of the barrel, two rows on each side, set ~45 degrees off the top of the barrel. The reviews have been really good, claiming that muzzle rise is almost completely eliminated by the ports.

So I'm wondering, could average Joe with a good amount of mechanical aptitude take any shotgun barrel and drill a couple rows of small holes in the end? It seems really simple to me, or am I forgetting to take something into consideration? Would the ports effect the function of the gun at all, or damage the barrel in any way? Of course you'd have to put a stop on the drill bit so you don't ram into the other side of the barrel and mar the inside of the barrel... or insert a wooden dowel into the barrel or something. Any thoughts?
 
The bare metal exposed by the drilling may rust if left uncoated and you'd want to eliminate any burrs from the inside of the barrel. There's really not that much to it, and the holes don't have to be at an angle not normal to the barrel's surface.

It will make the gun louder to the shooter, though.
 
Adding some weight to the gun will reduce recoil more than porting.

Add porting to a non ported shotgun barrel is not worth it.
 
Adding some weight to the gun will reduce recoil more than porting.
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True, but I'm not looking to reduce recoil. I find 2 3/4" 12ga. shells very manageable as far as recoil. I'm looking to reduce muzzle rise/climb/flip/jump... whatever you want to call it. The goal is to have the gun back on target in the shortest amount of time possible after the shot. I'm talking about a home defense weapon, not a goose getter.

Add porting to a non ported shotgun barrel is not worth it.
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Reasons why?

The bare metal exposed by the drilling may rust if left uncoated and you'd want to eliminate any burrs from the inside of the barrel.
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Hmmm... I see what you're getting at. However, the inside of the barrel is not coated, correct? The bore doesn't rust because it gets oiled, so since I'll be cleaning and oiling the ports as well (since they will get dirty) shouldn't they remain in the same condition as the bore - rust free? Or am I missing something?
 
One of my shooting buddies had an amateur machine shop in half of his garage. He successfully ported many guns in the manner similar to what you describe. The ports reduced recoil and muzzle rise.

The installation varied from your description in that the top row of ports was as high as the base of the rib would allow. In an effort to get the ports as vertical as possible, I saw a gun with a single row of large ducted ports that penetrated the center of the rib.
 
I have lots of shotguns. One of them, my favorite, BTW, is ported. However, I really can't tell any difference in it from any of my other shotguns. Either in recoil reduction or muzzle rise. I don't notice any significant difference in noise either. I realize these are subjective assessments, but that's my 2 cents.

My take on porting is I wouldn't reject a shotgun because it had it, and I wouldn't buy one because it did either. I also wouldn't go to the trouble to have one ported nor would I go to the trouble to do it myself.

If you are thinking of tackling this with a hand drill you are likely to be unhappy with the results.
 
Brownells has a jig that you can use to evenly space the ports on the barrel. Looking at the pattern of the jig, the results should look similar to what Vang Comp does in terms of porting.
 
The Brownell's jig is nice. It is also about 300 bucks with shipping. You can mail the barrel to Angle Port and they will do it for $60.00 if you can't live without it.
 
The goal is to have the gun back on target in the shortest amount of time possible after the shot
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Mossberg 590 original barrel ported. It nows has heavy barrel with Accu Choke. Works much better.

Practice ,practice 300 to 400 shell in a couple of hours about twice a month .

Two throwers ( friend brings his thrower also ) .They throw 1 every second.

Shortice time to target ... Practice


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You're building a 'house gun,' and you want it to be louder?

Best advice I can offer- get a plain jane box stock riot gun to start with, make and model matters very little, and buy a few flats of shotgun shells. Learn to safely run the gun first of all.

Buy a training video or two (RangeMaster's Tom Givens has a good one for shotgun noobs, Clint Smith's Thunder Ranch shotgun vid is great, and Louis Awerbuck's Combat Shotgun is a classic) to start getting some idea of how to fight with a shotgun. Then see if you can find a defensive shotgun class you can get to, once you have the basics of safety and running the gun down pat.

There are no hardware solutions for software problems. Work on your software and don't specialize your hardware to the point it becomes detrimental to your ability to effectively use pretty much any shotgun that comes to hand.

If you get stranded here at Casa Lapin without your pet shotgun when the zombie hordes arrive and the end of the world as we know it is nigh, I can offer you a choice of several makes and models of riot guns in various configurations with different accessories and magazine sizes. But few of them will have anything very much special about them- and NONE of them will be ported.

:D

lpl
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http://www.shotgunreport.com/TechTech/TechnicalTracts/ChokePort.html

Porting: A few new guns, notably a large part of the Japanese
Browning Citori series and many of the Berettas, now come with barrel
porting standard. There are also a dozen aftermarket companies that
perform this modification. Does it actually work? Probably a little, but
equally probably, not enough to matter. It definitely does not work as
well as it does in the high gas pressure environments of rifle and
pistol. Stroboscopic photography seems to show that porting does indeed
slightly reduce muzzle jump when the gun is unrestrained. The heavier
the shell, the better it works. Whether the reduction in muzzle jump
will be noticeable to the shooter is another question, especially if the
shooter uses light loads.

In the 1970s the Technoid conducted a blind comparison (some say that
all of the Technoid's comparisons are blind) of Magnaported barrels vs
standard barrels on a Remington 1100 and could detect absolutely no
difference. Then again, it is hard to tell with gas guns. His later
tests on two identical Browning Citori GTI O/Us, one factory ported and
one not, also showed no discernable difference. We are talking about
muzzle jump here. No one has ever substantiated any claim that porting
has reduced rearward recoil, although several of the machine shops claim
it. Be aware that many types of porting increase muzzle blast to
obnoxious levels, but other port hole shapes do not seem to.

So, do you port? If you are a pigeon shooter, shoot max loads, are
already deaf and are not concerned with the resale value of your gun,
you might give it a try. For sporting, if you habitually have a weak
forehand grip or choose to shoot a zero pitch stock to reduce face slap,
there might be some slight benefit. Other than that, skip it. If the gun
comes ported from the factory, it probably does not hurt anything, so
there is no point in filling the holes back up.
 
Porting a HD will really affect your hearing, minimally affect your muzzle rise and have zero effect on actual or felt recoil.

Porting any gun is not worth the trade-off in increased noise - especially in a HD gun where it is going to be loud enough indoors. I wish my target guns weren't ported - no help at all for any aspect of their use
 
All Forums GunBroker.com Message Forums General Discussion Shotgun muzzlebrake

I've got a quick question. How would one go about putting a muzzle brake on a shotgun, or incorporated one into the barrel. Would I just need to drill evenly spaced holes along the top of the barrel at the last inch?
Thanks
 
I've got a quick question. How would one go about putting a muzzle brake on a shotgun, or incorporated one into the barrel. Would I just need to drill evenly spaced holes along the top of the barrel at the last inch?
Thanks
Click to expand...

No, if you look at guns that ARE ported, the porting is back several inches from the muzzle due to the choke in the barrel. If the gun has tubes, you need to be behind that as well. Muzzle breaks do not work as well on shotguns as rifles as the pressures are nowhere near the same
 
oh, how I love to clean all those ports
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I have several that came that way- I have NEVER bothered doing that in over 20 years and won't bother. The barrels get wiped from the inside and outside - anything left inside gets blown out the next time I pull the trigger.....:D
 
Porting isn't worth the hassle and expense.

If you MUST spend money on barrel mods instead of ammo and range time, get a good smith to lengthen the forcing cone. This mimics more choke. The pellets get mashed a bit less, the pressure spike is lower and you end up with a slightly denser,smaller pattern with more energy.

Running a few thousand rounds through Ol' Trusty Rusty instead of squandering your money on gimmickery will do more good.

There's a decent number of shotguns here. None have ports, all have wear marks.

I've shot a fair number of OP's shotguns with ports and haven;t seen any difference except in volume. I can tell a ported gun from 50 yards.
 
So a choke may reduce recoil, ok, but does it reduce muzzle rise? As I've said before, there's nothing unmanageable about 2 3/4" 12ga shells to me, but the ability to rack load after load while holding the front site on target I find very appealing. Sort of like the AA-12, if any of you have seen it. So if there are alternative to porting to eliminate muzzle rise (since you all seem to be dead set against barrel porting) I'd love to hear them, though chokes seem to be a step backward to me... I want larger groups in a tactical/HD gun, not smaller ones.

Best advice I can offer- get a plain jane box stock riot gun to start with, make and model matters very little, and buy a few flats of shotgun shells. Learn to safely run the gun first of all.
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While I thank you for your concern, I do know how to operate a firearm.

And yes, I am talking about a tactical/home defense gun. So while I understand a ported gun of any time will be louder to the shooter than a non-ported gun, if I ever have to use it indoors, my hearing is going to be relatively low on my list of immediate concerns.
 
Silent,
Don't expect a quantum change in muzzle rise and kick after porting. Many folks can't tell the difference. To the comp shooter, a ported barrel might mean a slightly higher overall score and a less abused face and shoulder after a long weekend of shooting.
 
So a choke may reduce recoil, ok, but does it reduce muzzle rise?
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The choke does neither. The choke at the end of the barrel has one function- to impart a certain amount of constriction on the shot charge as it passes through thus helping to keep the pellets more together further out. It does not affect velocity, recoil, muzzle rise or anything else.

Extended forcing cones, as Dave mentioned, back-boring (or overboring as it is more correctly known)help in reducing perceived recoil by reducing the pressure levels inside the barrel. Kolar makes a target gun that is bored at .750 - "standard" (if there IS such a thing for 12 gauge) is .729, with some folks going to .734 plus or minus. In that case, Kolar's bore diameter makes the gun "feel" soft shooting because the recoil is applied more as a push than a shove. The fact that their guns weight 9-11 pounds doesn't hurt either.
 
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