The Down Range Forum
Member Section => Handguns => Topic started by: Kahrshooter on January 26, 2010, 05:04:28 PM
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Does anyone have experience with compensators on 1911 .45's? What % would you say they reduce muzzle flip? Are the drop in style worth the (small) investment?
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With practice and using the correct grip for a 1911, you can almost eliminate muzzle flip without a compensator. You can't limp wrist a 1911. If you an adjust your grip to be high, near the bore axis, and grip the gun properly with both hands, you can shoot a 1911 as fast as you can pull the trigger and keep your rounds on target.
I'm talking combat accuracy, not bullseye accuracy.....think of a 12 x 12 plate at 25 feet.
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My Colt Gold Cup has a ported barrell. It's by far the most accurate pistol I own. I can't tell any difference in recoil between that and my other two 1911's
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Only have 1 compensated/ported handgun, an EAA Witness Match in .40 S&W. It is a "race" gun for sure. I would put muzzle flip,compared to my other .40's, reduced about 15% or less. Hardly noticeable.
It is also the only pistol I do not carry or keep "in the nightstand" for self-defense.
Are you planning competition shooting, or already involved?
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Does anyone have experience with compensators on 1911 .45's? What % would you say they reduce muzzle flip? Are the drop in style worth the (small) investment?
I have a ton of experience with comped 1911's in my Bowling Pin Competitions. My 5 time defending comp-gun is shown in my pic with some trophy's the system has archived, with limited jerking of the trigger ;D . A standard drop in system is nonsense. The only benefit is the extra weight in the front of the gun. The comp(as the female) has to allow the barrel(as the male) to slide in and out of battery fluidly. This allows too much space for the gas pressure to direct the burning gasses out of ports and into a jet--affect which reduces muzzle flip. Period. A better investment would be a Bull-barrel, which will do the same effect of reducing your muzzle flip by weight without limiting your availability of competition events. If you have your standard barrel threaded, then you can have a bullbarrel cone compensator installed along with a standard bullbarrel cone sans bushing to switch at the end of each season (from bowling pins to single stack, limited 10, to the many IDPA classes or to bullseye) which allows for a ton of flexibility. A gunsmith should do this for you, very quickly and cheap, once the original system is fitted. I truly feel even if the drop in comp was free it is a wast of money in the short and long run investment of you gun.
tex
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With my Taurus I changed the grips to the Hogue overmolded grips and for me it nearly eliminated the muzzle flip to the point I could make Mountain Dew 20 oz bottles drop at 15-20 feet with near perfect accuracy. The grips alone held the gun to my hand. It seems to me that the majority of the problem stems from the gun moving around in one's hand during recoil. Even with the nice sharp grips that came on the gun the thing moved around in my bulky hands way more than any of my other guns till I made this small change. Just a though, but it's way cheaper and less size impacting than a comp.
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+1 to what Texcaliber said.
I have never been able to tell a huge difference (not enough for me to spend the $$$) between comped and non-comped guns I've shot, but I also understand that for a comp to do its job effectively, the round really needs to be tailored for use with a comp....especially in .45 ACP.
As I understand it, the hotter the load, the better the comp should work. Standard .45 ammo is a low-pressure round to begin with and may not generate the right amount of gasses to be noticeably effective. I hear that .38 Super works well with a comp, but I have no experience with that round.
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generally speaking, comps don't work very well for low persure/ low speed rounds like 45 acp.
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My buddy makes his own comps....
Let me go see if I can find a video or two of his....hold on a sec...
A'yup, here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzDKrpiayvM
It makes me laugh. ;D
He has a bridgeport and a lathe.
He has built 3 USPSA Open division guns now.
If I recall correctly, the hole he drills for the 9mm Major compensators is actually 3/8ths...or 0.375.... with the bullet diameter being somewhere, I think, around .355.
So I am thinking that the barrel bushing drop in compensators have an I.D. that has to be bigger than the O.D. of the barrel...so the clearances aren't so tight as to effectively deflect the gas up through its baffles.
That, and the fact that the bushing slides back and forth over the barrel versus a traditional comp being screwed to the end of the barrel.
My buddy tinkers around making comps out of stainless steel and aluminum. The nice thing about aluminum is that it is light. The bad thing about aluminum is that the pressure from the high pressure 9mmMajor rounds erodes the baffles.
Stainless steel doesn't erode as quickly, but it is heavy. Heavy enough that my buddy can tell the difference.
He has tried working with titanium before but it was either the wrong alloy or he don't have the correct combination of tooling and skills to be able to tap the very fine threads that are required for a comp.
You really do have to reload your own ammo with a comp. You want a slow burning bulky powder because that turns into more gas which in turn works the comp even more.
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I have a drop in comp that replaces the barrel bushing. It looks cool but doesn't do much. I have another pistol that's Mag-Na-Ported and I think I can feel the difference, especialy with +P ammo. But if I was doing it all over I would just man up and not have porting or a comp. That money is better spent on more ammo.
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I've been competing long enough that I have had 2 .45 comps built (not drop in). The second was a very big mistake on my part!!! More $$$$$'s than sence. To make a .45 comp work you would have to shoot something like a 152 gr. cast swc at major power factor of 165. This is safe and makes the comp work but it is only good for competition and plinking and you are at a serious disadvantage in competition because most if not all race guns will hold 27 + rounds in a "Big Stick" whereas .45 will only hold 19/20 maybe.
FWIW
Richard
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For bowling pins I like the 180-200 power factor for all day action (230gr CPRN going 800-850 fps). When I get to the stubborn pins or ones that have been bloated with lead, the 210-220+power factor Hollow Point +P's(185 Rem. Golden Saber's going 1150- 1187 fps) will come into play. While shooting +P 45acp out of a eight-port compensator, with the lighten slide and Red Dot ,the gun will have a negative track. Meaning the muzzle will actually dip my C-more's red dot. A little annoying for timing your splits through drills and practice repetition, but always a bonus knowing that the hit will put any bowling-pin on the floor and 7 out of 10 times will not stand up again. ;D :o 8)
:) tex :)
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Ive been shooting .45's for 30 yrs and can honestly tell you those drop in compensators are a waste of your money!If you know how to grip your .45 properly you won't have a problem with the recoil.