Hi
After reading most of the responses in this thread, most that shun it are NOT reloader types. They will settle for Plain Vanilla if anything else takes extra time or work to find. To those, I say the Federal .327 is not for you. For those of us who have learned to appreciate the fine accuracy of the .32 round whether it be in .32 S&W, .32 Long, .32 H&R Magnum or the new hottest Federal .327 Magnum this caliber is a welcomed one. It is everything the .32 H&R Magnum should have been. Most that hand load for the .32 H&R Magnum and have revolver's that will take the upper velocities got bored with it. I won't say I don't like the .32 H&R Magnum, but I will say it was designed for a weaker designed handgun that went Bankrupt less than a year after the Cartridge came out.
I am Glad that S&W Made a Revolver in their Medium K-Frame Platform for the .32 H&R Magnum that had a Barrel Under-lug and was called the Model 16-4 chambered in the .32 H&R Magnum cartridge. The sales of these S&W Model 16-4's got snubbed due to short consumer demand due to Poor reports of the Mild Anemic Factory loaded .32 H&R Magnum round. But for those of us inclined to load for it, we have learned it can be taken easily into the 1400 FPS area in a Heavier framed revolver with amazing accuracy, exceeding it's factory form of around 1100 FPS or Less.
You have to like the .32 round to like the Federal .327 Magnum. One thing that has bothered me is that
Federal is not producing enough ammo for it to attract your
Basic Walmart shoppers. You know the type that have the Old Lady watching over them when they take the Walmart trip with the Big Grocery cart and Four Kid's hanging off the sides of it, awaiting
the wife's approval for them to place anything in that Cart that
is not of use to the Old Lady or the Kids. 
I am a little different in that area as I hate Walmart and hardly ever shop there.
I don't need the Old Lady's approval to pick up or buy anything. Mine happens to shoot and enjoys any gun related purchases, and I made Damn sure of that feature back when we were dating, I was looking for a Gun partner and hunting pal when I settled down and got married. I go to gun shows and
Chuckle to myself when I see some
Poor brow beat Guy's being followed by one of these
control Freak types that flies off the Handle at him if he picks anything up off a vendors table to look , or tells him
"You Don't Need that". I hear this and think to myself, he needs to respond with
Well, I don't need you either, but I Guess am stuck with you...
Most of The
Chin Music I hear from guys running their Pie Hole knocking this caliber comes from those that either
do not have a gun chambered in it, or has
a wife that will not let them spend the money to get one, as they will settle for a well worn out example of a revolver of common Vanilla caliber that come's dirt cheap, so long as the Old Lady Nagging them approves of their sub standard Purchase.
Back to the Caliber here... In awaiting S&W to come out with this round in a medium K-Frame Target sightede revolver, I became anxious, then eventualy Furious to see it not happen. Being that I only have S&W's I feared it to not ever happen. I had heard that
Hamilton Bowen of Friendsville, Tennessee was making guns in this caliber, along with Converting ones that were in the .32 H&R Magnum round. I decided to get some more information on it, and since his shop is less than 30 Minutes from my house, I drove down there taking with me my Beloved S&W Model 16-4 that was chambered in .32 H&R Magnum. I knew Hamilton from the past so we skipped the meet & greet when I got there. I puled out my S&W and asked him what was involved to convert it ? He said
he only had to lengthen the cylinder throats in my existing cylinder, The he would match the throats polish the internal cylinder and test fire it. My next question was how much and how long does this take ? He said since I was hand delivering and picking up my gun that the total cost of his conversion was
$95.00. The wait would be
a couple of weeks as he was busy, but that worked with me so I left it with him for his conversion.
Two weeks later he called and said he had my gun ready for delivery. I told him when we were on the phone, that factory Loaded ammo was no existent at that time. I then asked him if he had any once fired cases to sell ? He told me
he could spare 100 of them, and that worked for me so I said I would be there in 30 minutes to pick the gun and cases up. I paid him and headed right back to the house, and into my Reloading room. I had chosen some
Sierra 90 Grain Sport's Master hollow point bullets for loading purposes. I resized, deprimed and placed the brass I had gotten from him in my Tumbler. I headed into the house and printed the reloading information I had found in an old Shooting Times article, the link for that article is at the bottom of this message. I settled on using
Accurate Arms # 7 Powder dispensed at 10.2 Grains per their suggestion along with a CCI Small magnum pistol primer and medium crimp. I took 50 rounds of it to the range and set up my Chrono meter to see the velocity. It clocked
1420 out of my 6" Barrel Fifteen feet in front of the Muzzle.
The spent shells extracted fine, and the primers showed to have mild flattening. I headed back home to load up a Little hotter as I saw this powder and bullet was showing much accuracy and promise. I increased the Powder some, You do that at your own risk and returned to the range later that day. This increased load showed to have a velocity of
1560 FPS and actually shot tighter groups than the previous one. I then tried some more I Loaded even a little hotter and that load showed me a velocity of
1610 Out of my 6" Barrel. Primers now looked flat, but extraction was fine and the group left behind
one ragged hole half the size of a dime at the 20 Yard line. I decided to make this load my hunting round and loaded 50 More for Deer season. Our Deer season opened one week later and I took the S&W afield with me along with my Rifle.
I was hunting a buddies land and he cautioned me of
a Large Bobcat the week before the season opened when I drove down to walk around and check for Deer sign. He said that this Cat was acting weird as it had been in his Back yard twice within the last month both time in
daylight hours and the last time it was there tried to attack one of his house cats. he feared it would bother or harm his wife who works in her flower beds in the yard, so
he asked me to eliminate it should I see it, and I obliged his request. On the Opening day of Deer season I entered the woods in the early morning darkness dressed in Camouflage. I walked to my Tree where I always sit and sat down awaiting the lightness. It grew light and I did not see one deer, and grew concerned about this by 7:30 AM as previous years I had always seen a dozen or so by that time. It occurred to me that the Bobcat he spoke of had to be in the woods so I started looked closely for any movement.
About Quarter to Eight I spotted some body movement above me on the upper woods line about 100 Yards off. This woods line bordered a Soy bean field that had been harvested and was bare but there was heavy brush on the field-Woods line area. I watched intently until the large animal I saw movement from got closer. It was out about 50 Yard when it stepped out in a clearing and I could see it was
the large Bobcat he had mentioned to me. I watched it move very slowly until it got about 35 Yard from me heading right at me, where I drew down on it with my S&W and fired a round. It heard me cock my action and looked straight at me and snarled, and at that moment I fired and it toppled over, Kicked a few times and laid on it's side dead. I called my son in law who was hunting that day with me, about 200 Yard's south of my spot on my cell phone and told him to get up here. He was in total awe at
the size of this cat and the fact that I had piled it up with a handgun at 35 Yards using ammo I had hand loaded. We dragged it out after dressing it and later took it to be mounted. My Taxidermist told me he had to use
Two Body mounts to get it all mounted on due to it's larger size.
He said it was the largest wild cat he had ever seen or mounted in his 25 Years of mounting animals. It weighted 41 Pounds dressed out and measured a true 41-1/2" In length. He fletched the hide and carcass and estiamted it's paw weight in excess of 50 #. It is currently one of the largest Bobcats to be taken in the state of Tennessee according to The Tennessee Fish & Wildlife resource agency. And so it goes,
the Federal .327 Magnum more than did it's job and I have this cat looking down upon me as I type from my Computer daily. If you have no fondness for
the supreme accuracy of the .32 Round, nor the urge to load your Own ammo for it, Then it more than likely
will not be for you. I like it, Just like all of my .32 Caliber hand guns and will continue to load and hunt for it to shoot Targets and Take Game with... Hammer It
http://www.shootingtimes.com/ammunition/ST_reloadingthe327_200902/index2.html
