I started a forum a while back (titled "Compensators"). All feedback was against using one, mostly arguing that it wouldn't be effective to reduce recoil. I promised to report back on my experience.

My pistol is a p320 tacops carry. The compensator is from HB Tactical, with a thread adapter. I ran two mags of factory 9mm 147-grain subsonic.

It works to reduce recoil. Not dramatically but noticeably. Recoil was definitely softer. It had no effect on accuracy (as expected).

But there was one huge problem. My sig, the only gun I have that has never, ever jammed, finally jammed. The brass didn't clear the ejection port on the slide's return. It was consistent too. That's why I only shot two mags. Once the comp was removed, the gun went back to its normal unfailing reliability.

The problem can be cured, I think, with a lighter recoil spring. Or better yet, removing the compensator altogether and not worrying about side effects from changing out factory parts. Why spoil a good thing?

Thanks for passing on your experience, it sucks that it didn't go as planned.

Can you just run a hotter round? If you're using a compensator, you're not using a suppressor, so don't need to shoot heavy, slow bullets.

You need full power ammo, something 124gr up or +p. Subsonic rounds are iffy. My G19 with Osprey wouldn't cycle most of the sub rounds other than 158gr Fiocchi.

With a TBRCi comp, it works quite well with 124 gr and up.

Thanks for the follow up. The comp did look cool with a full size grip and a compact slide. Cerakoating the comp and the slide would have been next on my list. I have a similar styled comp on my Glock in 357Sig.

My only guess is the extra weight at the end of the barrel provides enough inertia to slow the movement of the upper until the barrel unlocks from the slide. As others have suggested, a hotter round may fix this. The lighter recoil spring should work also if the ammo you are running is some you buy all the time or have stocked up on. Are you running an RMR on the slide? This will have a similar effect also.

A few years back I bought a box of 2011 parts for $800. It turned out there was enough parts to make a complete pistol in .38 Super (and almost a 45 ACP). The guy shot custom loads and didn't tell me what his specs were. I tried to get it to run on store bought .38s and it took a while. Got it to work with a little tweaking and a six and a half pound recoil spring (less than a regular 1911 in 22lr).

My other spring swap was converting a Glock from 45 ACP to 10mm and later to .38 Super. Yup, there are no specs for a Glock in .38 Super and it took a while. Runs flawless now.

Get the variety pack of recoil springs and use the strongest spring that cycles properly. Don't give up just yet.

The pistol has a romeo1 red dot on the slide. That has never been a problem but maybe the combination of the sight plus the compensator... If all I need to do is run hotter rounds, then problem solved. I'll try that this weekend before spending the time and effort finding an alternative guide rod and a variety of springs. I'll let you all know what happens next weekend.