.327 Magnum

[Guest NotDylan]

The more I read about this round, the more interested I am in it. My first thought was that the round served no real purpose with the existence of .357 mag. But after doing some more reading and seeing some tests, this round delivers close to the power of the .357 with somewhere around 30% less recoil and it offers a 6th round in small frame revolvers. That's a big deal to me. Here are some ballistics tests:

Heavy Clothing

Standard test

Overpenetration

That's pretty impressive. It seems the gun would be great for winter carry when the extra penetration would be useful. The only downside is that Ruger and Charter Arms are the only companies producing firearms in .327 at the moment. Some believe that a caliber (mainly wheelgun calibers) wont be successful unless S&W produces a gun in that caliber.

[Guest jwp]

You're right. That round has some serious potential.

No word if S&W will do anything with it. They're still sitting on a bunch of their discontinued 432s so it might be a while, or maybe they dropped that model to focus on a .327? Time will tell.

[shaftbass]

It would be nice to have one more round of capacity because of the smaller size. The ballistics look good, but I'm not going to go out and buy a new SP101 just for it.

It would take a scandium S&W J frame to get me interested.

[Almond27]

I think it is a very interesting round

[molonlabetn]

If S&W ever gets on-board with this caliber in a J-Frame, it will probably become very popular. I would certainly buy one of these before a .38spl.

[MrNobody]

I don't know think it will ever overtake the .357

[molonlabetn]

No, it won't. But it wasn't intended to. It is better in many ways, when you consider that it packs significant power, without the wrist-wrenching overkill of recoil by a .357mag in an airweight.

Would make a great short range varmint caliber from a chamber-reamed .32h&r lever-action, too...

[Guest Brian@GunDepot]

I'm really want to shoot the 327 FED so I can experience the 'hype' of the round. The gun feels excellent in your hand.... even though I'm more of a S&W fan, this SP101 is very sexy.

I didn't read the article, but the gun also shoots 32 S&W, 32 S&W Long, 32 H&R, and of course 327 FED in case it wasn't listed.

I have one in stock if anyone would like pictures of it beyond a 'stock' photo Ruger gives... just post up if you wanna see 'em.

[I_Like_Pie]

That round in a SP (heavy) still kicks pretty hard...not like a full house .357 or .38+p out of an titanium cylinder j-frame...but it isn't drastically less ferocious.

[musicman]

I'd like to see better pics of the cylinder swung open, and down the bore. I'f you've got an SP101 in 357 to sit beside it, I'd love to see the comparisons between the two. Yea, I'm a wheelgun nerd. Also, .32 slugs are cheaper than 38/357 slugs due to less lead, so a gun like that could really increase my plinking time as it relates to cost. (I'd be reloading, I know factory .32 is expensive.)

[DaveTN]

I don’t know anything about this round.

Now having said that… if the clothing a person is wearing is an issue this round certainly is not in the same league as a .357mag or even a .38.

If I need one more round, or more power than my 2†J-Frame, I’ll switch to my 2 ½†K-frame model 66. Not that much harder to conceal and handles .357mag loads with ease.

With the rising cost of ammunition I don’t see any newcomers having much of a chance.