Ported barrel, no compensator for SC 9mm

[Joe4d]

Thinking of setting my XDM osp up for steel challenge as I have quite a bit of 9mm 124 gr ammo loaded.. tightgroup IIRC,, could be American select...  If I load more might try BE 86.
Anyway Barsto have a line on an extended ported Barsto barrel pretty cheap,, would be quite the savings over a threaded and comped. They are available with 1 ,2 or 3 cut ports in the barrel. My initial thought was to split the difference and go with 2,,,, but not sure if it is a gas thing or not. So make a difference with 9mm minor ? Which number of ports ?
I know this would be open, and dont really care.. I seem to recall I have a carver mount buried somewhere, may use that instead of slide if I ever find it.
 

[zzt]

Go for three if you want to waste your money.  They don't do much.  Also, you cannot use lead, coated, or thinly plated bullets.  If it were me I'd have your local machinist/gunsmith cut the slide and put a popple in.  A 3/16" dia. should do the trick.  It cost me $25 to have three 5/32" popples put in my backup Open gun.  I would have been an additional $25 if he had to mill the slide.

Edited October 24, 2022 by zzt

[Joe4d]

humm didnt think of the coated bullet thing. Have quite a few of the older precision moly coated.. Think I sold the last cases of FMJ I had.
Ported barrel I can swap back and forth with the OEM, drilling i cant. Not to mention I dont trust gunsmiths. Ones I have used have butchered my guns.. 

[zzt]

On 10/24/2022 at 2:07 PM, Joe4d said:

Have quite a few of the older precision moly coated

 

Precision said to NOT shoot them in a ported or comp'd gun.  He said the coating would be flame cut, exposing the lead.  I tried it anyway.  He was right.  It leaded everything up.  Shoot them in your OEM barrel.

[Joe4d]

probably wont make much difference on the clock,,  Found a small local semi retired shop that in picture had a bunch of XDM's in the background,, maybe will be able to find a 5" .  I liked the 1st one I got, I took the optic off and it became my beater truck, boat, road trip gun..  

[Bakerjd]

On 10/24/2022 at 12:26 PM, zzt said:

Go for three if you want to waste your money.  They don't do much.  Also, you cannot use lead, coated, or thinly plated bullets.  If it were me I'd have your local machinist/gunsmith cut the slide and put a popple in.  A 3/16" dia. should do the trick.  It cost me $25 to have three 5/32" popples put in my backup Open gun.  I would have been an additional $25 if he had to mill the slide.

You 100% can use coated bullets in open. Plenty of people do it. 

[Bakerjd]

As for will ports help? Many say yes, many say no. I know for a fact the single port comp on a friend's atlas is super fun and no recoil up/dn. Doesn't matter if you grip it like a gorilla or a baby. He shoots the same 132pf load in that and his CO pistol and I like it so much I'm probably going to buy one. 

[zzt]

Yes, lots of people shoot coated in Open.  I shoot with several.  They all have to routinely clean smurf poo and lead out of their comps.

 

When I was considering buying a custom Open minor gun for steel, I talked to Atlas. His recommendation was a single 3/16" popple in the barrel and no comp.  This was for factory ammo, which I had planned to shoot at the time.

[Bakerjd]

On 10/27/2022 at 12:49 PM, zzt said:

Yes, lots of people shoot coated in Open.  I shoot with several.  They all have to routinely clean smurf poo and lead out of their comps.

 

When I was considering buying a custom Open minor gun for steel, I talked to Atlas. His recommendation was a single 3/16" popple in the barrel and no comp.  This was for factory ammo, which I had planned to shoot at the time.

His recommendation and what he builds are totally different. Not suprised at all. 

 

My personal minor PF (130PF 147s) will be a very light weight 5" slide, no popple holes or comp amd slide mounted optic. Minimal recoil yet extremely fun to shoot. 

[JM_]

I've got a 2011 with 8 popples in a V pattern. Pair that with sub power factor ammo and its stupid flat. I've got the exact same gun without popples and it doesn't shoot nearly as flat. 3 holes will help, but the more the better imo.