Thursday, October 20, 2011

Carver Custom Compensator

Carver Custom is more widely known for making Glock compensators, but I'm glad to see they have expanded into the M&P market. What made their product stand out to me above and beyond SJC and Jaeger products is 1) that the lines are more aesthetically pleasing on the front of an M&P, and 2) it includes a section that fits over the end of the recoil rod (I'll explain why this is important to me in a moment).

The product I received was immaculate. I honestly cannot find fault with it so far. Having had time to test it out, my only suggestion to Carver in the future is that I would like to see a 4- or 5- port model offered to handle higher power factor ammunition. Using factory ammunition for comparison (I'll get to the handloads in another post, so bear with me) barrel rise went from ~8" on a 20 yard target to ~3". Considering I had yet to add any kind of extra weight (tungsten guide rod, mag well, etc) it showed a lot of promise, especially since I was working with 115 and 124gr ammunition. I plan on using 90gr XTPs down the line for steel shooting, so the increased pressures should do nothing but improve the comp efficiency.

Now onto why the guide rod hole is important to this build.

The only downside to this comp that I see is that it has to be held on by thread locker (I was using red loktite). This is a pain in the ass because it cannot be easily removed for cleaning, and something I very much would like to remedy. My solution to this was to use a full length M&P9L guide rod from speed shooter specialties in place of the regular M&P rod. I can hear you ("WTF? he cant do that... can he...?).

Because the barrel, comp and guide rod remain parallel during recoil, it makes it possible for the longer guide rod to extend through the front of the frame and fit easily into the hole in lower section of the compensator, holding it in place with little or no thread locker. No thread locker means the comp is removable for cleaning. Problem solved.

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