Tiny and Mighty. The Griffin Armament Micro Carry Compensator

IS IT WORTH IT?

The words “concealed carry” and “compensator” don’t seem to play well with each other. Compensators are a very polarizing subject. Sure, we see them on badass guns in movies like John Wick and The Punisher but in reality, they tend to find themselves attached to more competition pistols rather than combat ones. For a piece of gear that is designed to tame pistol recoil (by venting the gasses of gunfire upward, pushing the pistol back down), why would anyone NOT want one on their defensive pistol?

The answer is actually quite simple: They add weight, length, and can cause your gun to malfunction. It’s been the tactical trend for the last decade to make guns as light and small as possible without losing efficacy. Comps kind of ruin that concept by being bulky and long, poking out beyond your barrel and making your pistol harder to conceal. This is why they are typically worn on larger framed competition pistol which which few try to conceal (looking at you 1911 guys). And depending on the company, the added weight of a comp on the barrel of some guns can cause a malfunction. While most guns function 100% with a compensator, there is still a persistent stigma when discussing comps on combat pistols.

Compensators add a lot of length to pistols. And it’s felt most when you try to conceal them.

Companies like Griffin Armament seek to change this perception for concealable pistols with their Micro Carry Compensator. It screws to your threaded barrel and has vented slots to direct the pistol downward and straight back as a full size compensator does. The thing that caught my eye was how small it was. GA’s Micro Carry comp has almost the same footprint as a thread protector!

But can something so small actually help with recoil management? We decided to test this out. I purchased the compensator from Optics Planet to screw onto my trusty Heckler and Koch P30SK. This high speed subcompact has been my carry pistol for years and while its recoil is very manageable for a smaller gun (comparable to my Glock 19), I felt it would be the perfect host to test the compensator.

GA makes this compensator in the common 1/2 x 28 and the not-so-common 13.5x1LH (the one I had to use, thanks a lot H&K..) thread pattern. While screwing it on to my barrel, I immediately felt confident that it would not fly off due to recoil. With the use of O-rings, the compensator tightens down snugly and “sticks” to the threads. In contrast, my factory thread protector seems to be allergic to staying put and would often get loose after 3 magazines or so.

So does this comp make a difference when actually shooting? The short answer is yes. On my P30SK, I could feel a slight difference in muzzle rise. When I say slight, I mean slight. It took 3 magazines for me to register both how much recoil I was feeling and the difference in my return-to-target speed. I fired over 100 rounds in our test and did noticed a difference in recoil impulse while it was attached. It certainly wasn’t the same as using a full-sized compensator but is dwarfed in both size and weight by them. So pound for pound, I would say the Griffin Armament Micro Carry Compensator works as advertised.

That being said, I am not so sure how much this compensator would tame recoil on a full sized duty weapon. However out of my short 3.89-inch barrel, the difference was there. It is certainly a product designed for the subcompact/micro carry folks. So for those of us who carry wonder nines like the Glock 43x, Sig P365, and so on, this compensator could be one of those little “all pros, no cons” upgrades since it takes up no more room than a thread protector and does provide a little helping hand with recoil.

Check out our video review of the Griffin Armament Micro Carry Compensator below.