.327 Federal Club thread

Lol, I saw the Shooter's Gallery episode, I think it was the Shooter's Gallery, anyway, it looked like it kicked Micheal Bane's shoulder a bit more like a 12, lol. But I'll agree with 20g slug, it's gonna kick some.

(in an effort to re-track)

I'd rather have a .327 rifle though, lol. Be like shooting a .22mag or something, I would think.
 
No... it would be like shooting a...

...wait for it...

.30 Carbine. (see my previous post)

This is a revolver round. It could be made to run in a rifle, but it's purpose-built for a revolver. There have been folks hot-rodding the .32-20, as I understand it, and I'm sure they can tell you what .327 Federal out of a rifle would be like.

As much as I like this round and as much fun as I've had with it, I see severe limitations to the .327 when you chop the barrel. The 2-inch and smaller class snubs are just neutering a high pressure round. CDNN has the snubbie Taurus .327 revolvers for PEANUTS! Seriously, the price on them is unreal... $239 for the snubble DAO with bobbed hammer. $299 for the 3-inch stainless, ported.

And IMO, the draw to an SP-101 sized revolver over .357 Magnum is not the 6th shot over 5, it's the INCREDIBLY decreased felt recoil of the round.

Street data? Doubt there is anything. If you can make any assumptions on paper & math, than the .327 Federal from an SP-101 should be more devastating on-target than any short barreled .38 Special, and it'll do it with the controllability that you can't get from a .357 Magnum small frame, short barreled revolver.

Small .357s are a nightmare to shoot for most people. The .327 Federal out of a SP-101 is just plain fun.
 
Just another scheme by the gun companys and gun magazines to push something not needed. My problem with it in two words would be sectional density.

Similiar to the 45 Gap. There is an add that has been in the paper for a while. Glock 45 Gap 12 mags, and ammo $200.
 
Why not an hi cap autoloader .327? Is it a revolver only cartridge(rimmed)?
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Problem with putting the 327 in an autoloader is the overall cartridge length. The overall length of the .327 is 1.47 inches while a 9mm is 1.169 inches in length. Anytime a cartridge gets over 1.3 inches in length, it is relegated to revolver and niche-status autoloader land. The .45 ACP is the longest of the really popular auto rounds, and it is 1.26 in in length.

For comparison, the .327 is just 0.1 inches shorter than a .357. Take a look at how many .357 autos there are out there and you can see that putting a long round in a auto is a very, very specialized market.
 
Creek Henry wrote:
"So... while a 327 sounds like a nifty trail gun, I think it is for the person already in to 32s with a load of H&R rounds already. I think this is sort of the same reason the 9x23 didn't make it and the 40 did... if you are wanting more power, you shoot a bigger bullet not just a faster one."

You mean not like the .357 was relative to the .38? :)
 
Riiiiiiight. The 44mag is my other 'dream' gun I don't need :) But I am more likely to get a 44 than a 353 and that's more likely than a 327.
 
Every 10 years another dozen fishing lures are offered and like lures ammo,
but the demographic has changed there are fewer new hunters and with elctronic toys fewer young shooters to be blitzed by adverts
The older shooters that remain know balistics and know that dead is dead at 350 yards
The elite that shoot beyond that demand dollars beyond the cost of a new PU.
Which one gets used every day?
Without free ammo and cheap rifles the sport is done for the 'Middle Incomed',, MIddle America will switch to Russian made gear and do thier hunting withthat gear, cut-out the Big $ Big 4 altogether just like after WW1 and W2.
With Russian gear I can drop a deer for .25 a round and $99 a rifle, plus tags.
The Moisen has nearly as many after MKT parts as an AR and it will only get better in the future!
I can drop a Moose with Moisen for $100. What can the Big 4 do to top that?
 
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Without free ammo and cheap rifles the sport is done for the 'Middle Incomed',, MIddle America will switch to Russian made gear and do thier hunting withthat gear, cut-out the Big $ Big 4 altogether just like after WW1 and W2.
With Russian gear I can drop a deer for .25 a round and $99 a rifle, plus tags.
The Moisen has nearly as many after MKT parts as an AR and it will only get better in the future!
I can drop a Moose with Moisen for $100. What can the Big 4 do to top that?
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A little melodramatic, aren't you? You're forgetting that the Mosin isn't new production. They were bought and paid for years ago, you're just buying them at what is basically garage-sale pricing to introduce some hard cash into Russia's economy in exchange for a rifle they no longer can or will use. Ditto their ammo. If you were buying a brand new one, you'd be paying quite a bit more than $100 and probably griping about how crude the thing is.

Cheap ammo and firearms are just not going to be; with commodity prices rising, you won't find too much dirt cheap ammo unless it's made in massive quantities. Regarding firearms, they've always been pricey; you're just seeing what inflation has done to the dollar- that $80 rifle of a half century ago cost about the same amount in terms of percentage of income as today's $500 hunting rifles.

I hardly think the .327 Fed Mag is indicative of pricing people out of the firearm market. It has pushed nothing out of the marketplace, nor has it driven up prices for anything else. I find it amusing how the round (as displayed by this thread) has become a Rorschach for people's dislike of the current state of the firearms industry.
 
CDNN has the snubbie Taurus .327 revolvers for PEANUTS! Seriously, the price on them is unreal... $239 for the snubble DAO with bobbed hammer. $299 for the 3-inch stainless, ported.
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You'll get what you pay for.

..... Me, I won't pay 300 bucks for a good chance of an incurable headache: there are far too many good guns out there for a bit more money. YMMV- Different Stokes for Different Folks. Some people like to gamble, some people like pain. .... some people juggle geese :D.......
 
<snicker> I wouldn't buy one, either. I was just marveling at how cheap someone can be popping .327's off right now if they really wanted to.

FWIW, I don't trust the Charter, either.
 
I see absolutely nothing wrong with the cartridge or the concept, the concept being hotrodding a .32 revolver cartridge. That's where all the magnums came from and is this cartridge called a magnum or not? I think it is a good thing to avoid using that word in the name.

However, I also imagine more .38 specials are fired from .357 magnums than magnum rounds are and the .38 Special itself is the longer, lower, wider development of an older cartridge. None of this is bad. However, some of this starts to sound like the proponents of the .45 ACP defending themselves from proponents of a .357 Sig (the .38 Super having been forgotten). There is mostly truth on every side of the discussion here.

It is fine if you don't mind increased muzzle blast (I am assuming). You can't get something for nothing, you know, although the .38 Super has neither a bigger kick or a bigger blast than a .45 ACP, just different. Both of them are being hotrodded these days, too. But I digress.

Tell me, how does the .327 Federal (any relation to the 9mm Federal?) compare to a .32-20? Probably that has been covered already but I skipped to the end of the book. But I will say one thing. To me, were I interested, only performance counts. Not cost, not ease of reloading and not availability. If you want performance, you aren't talking paper punching and you probably aren't going to do a great deal of shooting. But that's just the way I see things anymore.

Say, is anyone trying out anything new with the .38 S&W these days. Really a neglected and overlooked cartridge.
 
I also imagine that the 327 snubby to be MUCH louder than even a short 357 and that would put me off wanting one. Cops on TV shows may touch off a magazine full of 40SW rounds while sitting in a car or small office, but pull the trigger on just ONE round and you'll realize TV is not real life.
 
First of all I don't remember gas lines in 1981. I think that happened in the
70's during the oil embargo. I could be wrong but I personally never waited in line to get gas for my car in 1980, 81 or even 82 or 83.

And secondly, I will be introducing two new handgun calibers this year the .372 magnum and the .375 short, to go along with the .357 and the .327

Hopefully people won't be confused.
 
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I love the .327 mag. I know not everyone does, and I understand the reasons why. I'd like to take a public pulse. Why not the .327?
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I got to shoot one. The pistol was not lighter, the recoil was not less than my 38 Snubbies and it was loud.

Niche cartridge sold by shill Gunwriters as the next big thing and rapidly heading towards the ash heap of history.
 
Anyone remember the .22 Jet? Or the .256 Winchester Magnum?

If being expensive or relatively hard to find were an issue, no one would be using .45-70 either.
 
That's where all the magnums came from and is this cartridge called a magnum or not? I think it is a good thing to avoid using that word in the name.
I think the use of the word is fine... they NEVER should have used it for the .32 H&R round. Neither the pressure nor performance of that round deserved the term "magnum." I don't think there is anything wrong with the use of the term "magnum", but for the good of everyone, it should be used with discretion. If anything, I'd argue instead of ".327 Federal Mag" it should be the ".32 Federal Magnum" but obviously... that would have been easier to do had the .32 H&R been called what it really was-- the .32 H&R Special.

However, I also imagine more .38 specials are fired from .357 magnums than magnum rounds are and the .38 Special itself is the longer, lower, wider development of an older cartridge.
I used to think this and practice it myself, too, until I re-discovered the absolute joys of shooting .357 Magnum from a large, solid revolver. I put thousands of .38's through my 686 to hundreds of magnums over the years, but in the past couple seasons, I've done all my .38 from a model 10 and I've shot nothing but .357 from my 686. Not all of it ball-to-the-wall, some were merely medium magnum loads, but so much more enjoyable then little .38 poppers.

Tell me, how does the .327 Federal (any relation to the 9mm Federal?) compare to a .32-20? Probably that has been covered already but I skipped to the end of the book.
It's not a pseudo-bottle neck round, it's not a 120-year old round, it's much more stout in brass strength and it runs at a higher pressure. Like my earlier comparison to the .30 Carb, it's similar. But different.

But I will say one thing. To me, were I interested, only performance counts. Not cost, not ease of reloading and not availability. If you want performance, you aren't talking paper punching and you probably aren't going to do a great deal of shooting. But that's just the way I see things anymore.
All well and good, but the entire buying public may not see it the same way. For me, I don't see me getting one of the .327 Blackhawks or GP-100s, but only because I'm frugal and I'm already married to the .30 Carbine in a Blackhawk. But if someone stole my Blackhawk, I'd replace it with a .327 Federal GP-100. I probably won't own both, because they are so similar.

And when you absolutely dig handloading, like myself and at least a couple of other folks in this thread do, it does matter a lot that it's much more load bench friendly.

Say, is anyone trying out anything new with the .38 S&W these days. Really a neglected and overlooked cartridge.
It may be, but it's pretty easy to see why... not the same diameter as .38/.357. It's different enough that you need different tools and components to work with it.

I think .41 Magnum would have a lot more popularity right now if it were .400" (or even if .40 S&W and 10mm were .410", either way) But they aren't, so they are different, and require a whole separate run of bullets and loading dies. Pain in the butt, doesn't help the popularity.
 
Also, a bottlenecked revolver round is going to have issues!

AMO256WINMAG.jpg
 
Sevens wrote:

"I think the use of the word is fine... they NEVER should have used it for the .32 H&R round. Neither the pressure nor performance of that round deserved the term "magnum." I don't think there is anything wrong with the use of the term "magnum", but for the good of everyone, it should be used with discretion. If anything, I'd argue instead of ".327 Federal Mag" it should be the ".32 Federal Magnum" but obviously... that would have been easier to do had the .32 H&R been called what it really was-- the .32 H&R Special."

I would agree against the use of the .327 nomenclature, and that it was largely a marketing ploy to play with the .357--sounding similar and "better" than .328 or .326! However, whether they knew it or not--and my guess is they did--it was probably good that they did not call it just .32 Federal Magnum, as many folks would just shorten it in daily-speak to .32 Mag, and that's already what many folks (including myself) were shortening the H&R term to. I agree, in hindsight, the H&R should have been the .32 Special or .32 H&R Special. I've shot the H&R Mag--in Ruger Single Sixes for 25 or so years since its inception (at least in Rugers), and the Smith Airweight for six or so years. They are a hoot to shoot, definitely know you're shooting more than a .22-anything, and even in mild factory form, they are "magnum" compared to most S&W Longs...And, maybe they didn't anticipate there'd be a "true" (Federal) magnum down the line.
...Yeah, I know, giving them too much credit!

I've shot a friend's .327 SP101 and really liked it, and I'd love to also see a 3" 7 shot K frame in it and a Ruger midframe SA (flat top and New Vaquero) in a .32-20/.327 convertible. A Single Six .327 is a no-brainer, and I'd like to convert my H&R Mags if Ruger doesn't do the right thing there.
 
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I also imagine that the 327 snubby to be MUCH louder than even a short 357 and that would put me off wanting one.
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With comparable barrel lengths and load levels, the muzzle blast and noise levels are about the same. Depending on the situation, one cartridge may be more "punishing" than the other.

There's no mystery here. The public just had a complete lack of interest in the cartridge. End of story.
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Excellent argument.

The "complete lack of interest" must be why no dealers around here can keep anything but the Taurus .327s in stock.
S&W 632s sell like hot cakes.
SP101s move like wild fire.
Blackhawks almost match the volume of SP101s
GP100s are the slowest mover, but still sell at least 1 per day, when the BHs and SPs are sold out.
And the Taurus models? Well, people look at the Taurii, and buy something else.

I think one of the biggest issues with the Taurus revolvers (aside from quality) is the cartridge designation. With Taurus making both ".32 MAG" and ".327FEDMAG" stamped revolvers (usually found side by side), I think many buyers and ignorant salesmen get confused. Firearms enthusiasts know the difference, but the Average Joe doesn't know exactly what the difference is.

Niche cartridge sold by shill Gunwriters as the next big thing and rapidly heading towards the ash heap of history.
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Look through the hype, and determine what it really is - for yourself. If you don't want it, don't buy one.

I bought the .327 to have something different, provide the wife with something cheap to feed (I reload, if you didn't read the whole thread), and I liked how the cartridge looked on paper. In return, I discovered the most versatile chambering I have ever worked with. With .32 S&W Long, .32 H&R, and .327 Federal brass, I can load lead or jacketed projectiles from 45 grains to 125 grains, from 350 fps to 1,700 fps. I load .32 Auto and .32 S&W, as well; but I can do anything I want with just the first three cases.

The .327 may not appeal to everyone, but it works well for me.
A lot of people love the .40 S&W. I think it's a complete waste of time and resources.
A lot of people love the 10mm Auto. I am a fan, as well. But, what's the point for non-reloaders, with all the neutered factory ammo that's running a lower or similar velocity to .40 S&W?

The whole point of the .327 Federal was for ATK to make money. There is no denying that. But, from a shooter's perspective, it offers us another choice. Why go to .38/.357, when you don't need to?
Why deal with the .32-20; when a straight-wall cartridge is available, that will meet or surpass its performance in many loadings, and allows the smaller legacy cartridges to be shot?
Why deal with .30 Carbine's eccentricities, when the .327 is so easy to deal with?

It's all about personal preference.


And, for you Armchair Commandos:
Keyboard range time, and time spent daydreaming is no replacement for actually shooting something. ...Especially cartridges that are difficult to make direct comparisons for.
Get out of your basement bunkers, and actually shoot the thing. ;)
 
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