Magna porting or muzzle brake
I’m looking to have ultimate 500 or 460 built. Wonder what you guys have found cuts the recoil more. I would like to have my barrel around 12” and magnaport if I can but if I go the muzzle brake route I will go 10.5. Any help you can give would be appreciated
With the porting on a S&W 629 I saw very
little decrease in recoil (kick).... However, after I had an accident with my right wrist and after shooting my FA`s 454 the wrist would swell up. I then sent the 454 to Magnaport where they installed their brake. I would say there was a 40% decrease in felt recoil cause my wrist no longer swelled up.... That`s a picture of her with the brake.....![[image]](images/uploaded/202512090902586937e5c2b3568.jpg)
muzzle brake
The porting will wreak havoc on your wrist.
I had a 4-3/4" .475 with the 4-port work
In videos, looking frame by frame, it indeed diverted gasses, you could see it jetting from the ports upward. Recoil was still fierce and it gooed my front sight ramp, the sides with lead and deposits as well. I'm not a fan of the porting on revolvers. I still have two with it though, a .44 Mag. Ruger and a FA83 .454. The front sight ramp is perpetually dirty.
It DOES work great on rifles. We had a 7 lb. .300 Weatherby Remington 700 that recoils like a .243 Win. even with 220 gr. max loads. No brake sticking out making it longer or bulky either. So on rifles in particular I like the 4-ports. Continuing up the latter to 400 gr. bullets and more, huger volumes of gasses with close to 100 gr. of powder, I think the brakes are better for the .416 - .458 - .500 NE etc.
Just my opinion from my experiences. A 500 gr. at 2000+ fps is gonna kick some, it's physics. But a .416 can really be tolerable if you balance portability with the addition of a brake. My .458 has the brake but it NEEDS it.
This is my cherished .416 Rigby with the brake. Gary built it for Kase and their African trips. It's been at least a couple calibers before the .416 Rigby. Compared to my .375 Winchester. The shorter barrel reduces performance some and that brake does the rest. I'd say it's less than a .300 Magnum as to recoil.
![[image]](images/uploaded/202512091434506938338a15ead.jpg)
My .458. I had the barrel shortened to 22" but the brake is 3" so from a 24" factory barrel it is still LONG. I sure wish I'd had it shortened to 20" + brake. But it really helps recoil. The inertia is still there. All this applies to revolvers and single shot handguns as well, conceptually.
![[image]](images/uploaded/20251209145428693838241a302.jpg)