Threaded barrel & comp OR Mag-na-Porting for OPEN PPQ Q5 Match

[mstamper]

I am going round and round in my head as to what to do.

I use my Q5 shooting minor / open in USPSA indoor matches (till the weather warms up). 
My specs on the gun are 9mm, SS guide rod w/ 13# wilson combat flat spring, APEX flat trigger, Burris FF3 MRDS, Trigger lightened to 3.25#'s, TF magwell and mag extenders. I am wanting to take it to the next level to run it in OPEN class and that would be to compensate the barrel somehow.

The Q5 has slide ports in it already and Mag-Na-Port will enlarge the top ports on the slide next to the front sight for about 160 plus shipping. I have to send off the gun to them and will be without for several weeks or more.

I can order a Jarvis threaded drop in barrel and a Lone Wolf 2 top hole compensator for about 320.00 plus shipping and put it together myself.

Both are good solutions. the Mag-n-port will allow me to continue to use my current holster but I am wondering if there will be enough gas blown out to keep the muzzle flat. 

The Jarvis/Lone wolf combination will keep the muzzle flat from what I have read BUT, due to the compensator being wider than the slide I would have to purchase a new holster costing about another 175.00 average price to allow for the width of the comp (unless the sides of the comp could be ground / milled down to be as wide as the slide)

I am interested in learning from those who have ported or comped their Q5 AND shoot competition what your pros and cons are for each.

I am NOT going to be changing my loads to shoot 9mm MAJOR as I have read too many horror stories of stock barrels not being able to survive shooting major PF and I don't want to buy a custom barrel nor do I hand load.

[JMike]

I magna-ported a 5 inch M&P several years ago. It wasn’t worth the effort or expense. I am sure Magna porting would be valuable in some pistol hunting applications with much larger calibers.

Regardless of what you do, you will be at a disadvantage in shooting open minor. And due to that fact, I wouldn’t do any of it.

Good luck to you!


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[mstamper]

3 minutes ago, JMike said:

I magna-ported a 5 inch M&P several years ago. It wasn’t worth the effort or expense. I am sure Magna porting would be valuable in some pistol hunting applications with much larger calibers.

Regardless of what you do, you will be at a disadvantage in shooting open minor. And due to that fact, I wouldn’t do any of it.

Good luck to you!


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I love to shoot. While I am competitive, I know that I will not be able to compete against the 38 super or 38 super comp or even 10mm / .40 cal guys on any given day with a perfect running gun. THAT being said, I have out shot other open shooters due to the overall reliability of my Q5. I have seen lots of FTF, light hammer strikes, and various jams on full on RACE guns that allows me to move ahead by being consistent.

 

The main reason I am shooting open minor is that my older eyes just can't see the IRON sights as well any more, so to be able to see I added a MRDS, that, along with the other modifications put me in OPEN class. I am ok with the division. I honestly think I can be a solid middle B shooter as the gun sits. I think I can get to a high B with comping the gun ( I am a middle C now but only have 4 qualifiers so far after being out of the game for 20 years)

[superdude]

I don't know if the magnaporting will keep the muzzle flat, but it will help.  Here is an article that measured the effect of porting on muzzle rise in a Glock 19C:   http://www.shootingtimes.com/gunsmithing/recoil-reduction-ports-vs-compensator/

 

With the Lone Wolf 2 hole comp, you might have to use ammo with a reasonably strong recoil impulse to get the gun to cycle, according to Lone Wolf.

 

Something to think about:  Ask Jarvis if their Walther barrels will handle 9 Major.  If they have enough chamber support, they should do fine. You can buy 9 Major factory ammo from a couple of ammo manufacturers, if desired. This, along with a better compensator, would allow you to shoot Major in Open, if you decide to go that route. But knowing if the Jarvis barrel will handle 9 Major is good information to have even if you don't decide to take advantage of it.

[mstamper]

3 minutes ago, superdude said:

I don't know if the magnaporting will keep the muzzle flat, but it will help.  Here is an article that measured the effect of porting on muzzle rise in a Glock 19C:   http://www.shootingtimes.com/gunsmithing/recoil-reduction-ports-vs-compensator/

 

With the Lone Wolf 2 hole comp, you might have to use ammo with a reasonably strong recoil impulse to get the gun to cycle, according to Lone Wolf.

 

Something to think about:  Ask Jarvis if their Walther barrels will handle 9 Major.  If they have enough chamber support, they should do fine. You can buy 9 Major factory ammo from a couple of ammo manufacturers, if desired. This, along with a better compensator, would allow you to shoot Major in Open, if you decide to go that route. But knowing if the Jarvis barrel will handle 9 Major is good information to have even if you don't decide to take advantage of it.

 

I did not think about asking about if the Jarvis barrel will handle 9 major. Thanks for that idea! There is another user on the walther forums that uses the 2 port comp and put a 13# spring on it and it runs fine. I will message Jarvis.

[k80clay]

I've never seen any magma porting worth a nickel. Saw tons of it done to trap guns. The ones who were honest didn't care for it on their guns after either. I always had something against cutting holes in a $2500 set of Krieghoff barrels but to each their own. 

[coolcw1987]

A comp is by far way better than ports alone. If you want you could add both to try and keep the gun even flatter but I wouldn't waste my time with magna porting it. Slap a good comp on it and if you want it even flatter add 3 or 4 straight vertical popple holes in the top.

[HCH]

On 12/26/2017 at 3:13 PM, mstamper said:

 

I love to shoot. While I am competitive, I know that I will not be able to compete against the 38 super or 38 super comp or even 10mm / .40 cal guys on any given day with a perfect running gun. THAT being said, I have out shot other open shooters due to the overall reliability of my Q5. I have seen lots of FTF, light hammer strikes, and various jams on full on RACE guns that allows me to move ahead by being consistent.

 

The main reason I am shooting open minor is that my older eyes just can't see the IRON sights as well any more, so to be able to see I added a MRDS, that, along with the other modifications put me in OPEN class. I am ok with the division. I honestly think I can be a solid middle B shooter as the gun sits. I think I can get to a high B with comping the gun ( I am a middle C now but only have 4 qualifiers so far after being out of the game for 20 years)

 

Sounds like you should be shooting Carry Optics. 

[Bdh821]

I just put a trigger return spring in my Q5.  Such an amazing improvement 

[zzt]

On 1/12/2018 at 9:04 AM, HCH said:

 

Sounds like you should be shooting Carry Optics. 

 

That is exactly what I was going to suggest.  Buy a non-ported barrel and drop it in.  You get to shoot Minor with no scoring penalty, and you get to use 140 mags fully loaded.  Three of my friends recently did exactly that.  One started with a ported Glock.  It had big, long factory ports.  He tried everything he could think of trying to make Major out of that gun.  We finally convinced him it was fruitless.  He bough a non-ported barrel and now shoots CO.

 

Another friend loves his M&P.  He didn't like shooting Open Minor, so he dropped in a KKM non-ported barrel and is cleaning up the field in CO.

 

I got into Open because of old eyes.  I have a fortune tied up in Open Major guns and mags, so I'm not going to switch.  If I were starting from scratch, I'd go CO.  Way cheaper and 95% of the fun.

[mstamper]

 
That is exactly what I was going to suggest.  Buy a non-ported barrel and drop it in.  You get to shoot Minor with no scoring penalty, and you get to use 140 mags fully loaded.  Three of my friends recently did exactly that.  One started with a ported Glock.  It had big, long factory ports.  He tried everything he could think of trying to make Major out of that gun.  We finally convinced him it was fruitless.  He bough a non-ported barrel and now shoots CO.
 
Another friend loves his M&P.  He didn't like shooting Open Minor, so he dropped in a KKM non-ported barrel and is cleaning up the field in CO.
 
I got into Open because of old eyes.  I have a fortune tied up in Open Major guns and mags, so I'm not going to switch.  If I were starting from scratch, I'd go CO.  Way cheaper and 95% of the fun.

Until uspsa allows CO to use magwells and change out triggers I'm staying in open.

I love the APEX trigger and my Taylor freelance magwell. And again, until uspsa modifies the provisional rules in the division to make it more like the limited division (where limited is basically open without compensators and optics), I'll stick to where I am.

I just bought a pcc so, for now, the q5 stays in its current configuration. I might add a comp to later and might actually rechamber it to 9 major since Jarvis says their barrel will handle those loads.

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