doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Browning Ultra XS question.

Hello everybody, i am on the verge of buying a Browning Ultra XS with 30" ported barrels. I was doing some search on the net and i read somewhere that porting the barrels leads up to reduced recoil and reduced velocity and better patterns. Is this the case? I will be using this gun for shooting wood pigeons and sometime sporting clays. Will this velocity loss be a disadvantage for me in game shooting? I am really looking for help in this case.

Looking forward for your answers

Best Regards

Kem

Porting on shotgun barrels is best described as 'unfortunate'.

Rifle 'muzzle brakes' are very effective because the mass of the powder gas is such a high percentage of the total ejecta.

With shotguns, not so much. A rifle can have 1/3 of the ejecta as gas, a shotgun perhaps 7%. Essentially an inconsequential amount, and only a portion can be redirected.

At the point of pressure relief, there is about 500 psi and the shot is accelerating at about 20 fps per inch.

Reduced recoil, yes. But not much and due mostly to less velocity. The gas redirection effect is minimal.

Better patterns? Highly debatable but possible due to less deformation in the choke, again because of reduced velocity.

Browning could sell unported guns just fine. Many people have realized just how pointless porting really is with shotguns. It mostly just makes the gun louder.

You won't see any difference game shooting, but you will likely hear it.

Thank you shotgunjones, the problem is only 30" Browning they sell here is this and i dont have any other option.

I understand.

It's a very good gun.

I managed to find an unported 20 gauge XS Sport when they were making them, and it has been durable and reliable. It may be the best handling shotgun I've ever used.

Even in 20 gauge, they are so sold on the idea of porting that only about 30% of the XS Sport models were delivered without porting.

I have two ported guns for the same reason as you are dealing with, they simply don't make a non-port version.

It's not difficult to deal with, but I'd sure rather they were not ported!

Kem1988,
Exactly as Shotgunjones described. I once had a 12ga. Browning Ultra Sporter that was ported. My shooting partners didn't appreciate the muzzle noise, the muzzles would light up at night shooting trap, and cleaning the ports and barrel soot after a shooting session was a pain. My reason for having them was in the beginning I imagined there might be some advantage, I thought they looked cool and everyone else had them, and that was the only way Browning sold their sporting guns. I've avoided them ever since.
I once saw a SxS with barrel ports and extended Winchester type choke tubes that made me sick.
I would search high and low for an appropriate gun without the ports if I were you.
Karl

Thanks shotgunjones for the info. Karl Graebner thanks for the info as well, i really dont have another choice, i am a 30" lover and besides the crap turkish guns this is what i found as 30". The only thing that mattered for me, was to learn if the velocity loss will make me problems in game shooting especially higher birds? If it's not i will go for it with its consequences such as the noise and cleaning.

Awaiting your answers

Thank you

Kem

The velocity loss is very slight.

For practical purposes, negligible.

My understanding of the primary advantage of ported barrels is to compensate for tendency of barrels to rise upon firing and thus keeping barrels "flat" for quick and more accurate second shot. I personally like them for O/U guns. Since porting is at end of barrel, there could not be any meaningful loss of velocity. Friends do claim my guns seem loud. I wear plugs + muffs and don't notice any difference. A competitive advantage perhaps?

Porting has very minimal effect on decreasing muzzle rise. Might make a slight difference if your second shot was extremely fast after the first. Ported barrels are slightly louder but nothing compared to the noise a Cutts Compensator makes. More than one bird dog in our family went deaf in part due to gunning over them with a A5 with a Cutts. My grandfather shot hundreds of quail a year and by age six or seven his dog no longer was bothered by thunder.

I also suspect they suffered from ear mites which I never remember being diagnosed or treated. A lot of minor cuts were treated with a grease type salve which I suspect just created a barrier to keep stuff out of the cut. Life was hard on a dog in those days. A dogs life was a lament about hard times with little love.

Porting a K-80 barrel reduces it value by 500 to 1500 dollars.
Save money at both ends, don't do it!
bill