MS Hitman;
I agree completely. I would suspect that the 400 gr. .475 bullet at only 1400 would not need porting. I know that those 355 gr. that I shoot out of my 454 don't need it either at 1400-1500, but they are churning out of my barrel at 1697 fps. When I was working up the load I started at 22.0 gr. and was shocked at how mild the recoil was. By the time I reached max at 32.0 gr. I had a whole new respect for the handgun!
However, my M77 Ruger in 458 certainly benifited. Your bench shooting syle may be different than mine, but when I bench shoot I do not restrain the forend at all, letting it rise under recoil. In my 458 this was very unnerving. The barrel would rise off the rest over a foot and come crashing back down. When I tried holding the forend down, my groups opened up considerably. With more practice bench shooting that way I'm sure I could have learned to tighten up the groups again, but this old dog it too #### old to change things now. So, for me porting did the trick. I can shoot those same 500 gr. loads from bench now and the stock never rises out of the rest. However, shooting off-hand rise is not as much of a problem since one is obviously holding on the forend, but still, even then, the amount of muzzle jump was noticeably changed, from some to none. The range I shoot at only has three hard points to shoot off of and they are over 75 feet apart, so blast from porting is not a bother to anyone.
You are also certainly right about perseption. I cannot help but giggle to myself when at work we are talking guns and someone says how ungodly the recoil is from his 30-06, leaving him black and blue for days after shooting. The guy I am thinking about shoots a 700 Remington and 150 gr. factory loads.
Perseption certainly is a funny thing.
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