Love my S&W 632! saw a .327mag revolver in a gun storeâ¦..loved look and feelâ¦.my .357mag is too heavy to carry all dayâ¦.intriqued by the smaller weaponâ¦..enjoyed your article very muchâ¦..Thanks. CFE Pistol charge weight for .327 Federal Magnum starts at 5.9 grains and can go up to 7.0 grains if youâre shooting your reloads in a snub-nose revolver. Most experts agree that the 50 AEâs recoil is so pronounced that it has no practical application inside of tactical situations. Now Iâve been hearing about the .327 Federal Magnum for less than a decade now. , you can use 100-grain Hornady XTP bullets and. It would only offer a velocity at the muzzle of around 705 feet per second, achieving less than 100 foot-pounds of force. Overall I feel that felt recoil is very well mitigated with either the 40 or 357 in a 229. any non-dangerous animal not weighing over 350 pounds) at distances of up to 100 yards, as the chart above shows. The following ammunition cartridge ballistics information and chart can be used to approximately compare .270 Winchester vs .30-30 Winchester ammo rounds. But I have to say that most of the pistol rounds were cowboy rounds. Sadly, as with other not-so-popular handgun cartridges, the .327 Federal Magnum struggles in the ammo availability department. Personally, being a wheelgun type of guy, I donât think any of these newer autoloader .357 Magnum knockoffs could ever replace the old but venerable handgun cartridge they attempt to copy. if(typeof __ez_fad_position != 'undefined'){__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-gunnewsdaily_com-medrectangle-3-0')}; I did a write-up on the .357 SIG (why I think it will never catch on). I took the following approximate loads from the Speer manual: Let this point out the danger of using data posted by anyone without verifying it first with the mfr of powder or a known handloading guide! But that's me. The heavier recoil of the.30-30 meant that it wasnât as fast as the.357, but I didnât have any problems with the action binding. Depending on the bullet weight, powder charge and velocity, out of a 3-1/16-inch barrel, hot .327 Federal Magnum loads can produce muzzle energies that can go as high up as ~600 foot-pounds of force, rivaling that of some of the warmer .357 Magnum loads but with less recoil and muzzle flip out of a snub-nose revolver. Winner: .30-06 Springfield. The design called for an 85-grain bullet measuring 0.312 inch in diameter seated in a case 0.61-inch long with a 0.375-inch diameter. It was christened the .327 Federal Magnum (which, in my opinion, can also be called .32 Super Magnum because it is a super magnum, i.e. Both are slightly cheaper than their octagonal round counterparts at only $893. The consideration of barrel length and added weight from a super 14 to a 10" Bbl would favor the 7-30 Waters. Deriving its name from a combination of the caliber and the powder charge (.30 caliber, 30 grains of powder) the .30-30 was introduced in 1895, in the John Browning-designed Model 1894 Winchester . Your email address will not be published. The .30-30 Winchester has to win somewhere, and it does with recoil. Think Iâll buy the SP 101 tomorrow. This makes any .327 Federal Magnum revolver a multi-caliber platform able to shoot five different calibers â kind of similar to the Medusa M47. Itâs starting out at bit over 1200 ft-lbs, which is roughly 300 foot pounds greater than the next .357. Still, if you want to try it out, Midway has some of the hottest .327 Federal Magnum loads available online. Unfortunately, after 10 years of being introduced, the .327 Federal Magnum hasnât really caught on in terms of popularity, which could be the reason why only a few companies these days manufacture ammo for this awesome cartridge. It was rivaled by other weak point-blank-range cartridges like the .25 ACP, the .32 ACP (which is a wee bit more powerful), the .22 Short and Long, and the .22 Long Rifle. Thatâs 20% more ammo in the cylinder without having to sacrifice ballistic performance. The .41 magnum is my absolute favorite all around hunting,plinkin',SD rifle but I think they are hard to find now. A 30-30 can be made to work in a 14 incher, only if one is very careful with powder selection and shoots a heavy for caliber bullet. Itâs retailing for $749; , also a 6-shot stainless steel revolver with a longer 4.2-inch barrel. The resultant free recoil energy, in ft/lbs, assuming a rifle weight of 6.5 lbs was:.357: 10.0.44: 13.2.30-30: 11.9 Additionally, hereâs a fine write-up by Brian Pearce, a writer for Rifle Magazine, with info on load development if you want to come up with your own custom loads.if(typeof __ez_fad_position != 'undefined'){__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-gunnewsdaily_com-leader-2-0')}; But if youâre in a hurry and you already have .327 Federal Magnum brass and dies, you can use 100-grain Hornady XTP bullets and CCI Small Pistol #500 primer as theyâre a little thicker compared to Federal Primers which will allow them to handle more pressure. Why they even made a 30-30 in ten inch configuration in the first place is well beyond my grasp. A 30-30 will have 12 to 14 ft lbs of free recoil. Lately, Iâve been doing research on it to see if it can be a viable alternative to the .357 Magnum. I have been playing with DUPLEX loads in the 327 Fed. Some people even shoot the .32 ACP in their SP101 which chambers just fine because the .32 ACP is semi-rimmed. , a 6-shot stainless steel snub-nose revolver with a 3-inch barrel and has fixed rear sight and black front sight. This makes the cartridge a great option for concealed carry and home defense.if(typeof __ez_fad_position != 'undefined'){__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-gunnewsdaily_com-large-leaderboard-2-0')}; And notwithstanding the fact that it was designed primarily as a snub-nose revolver cartridge, some of the hottest .327 Federal Magnum loads that use hard cast lead bullets in a 20-inch barrel rifle should be able to take up to medium-size game (i.e. About Us | Write For Us | Advertise| Terms and Conditions | Privacy Policy | Disclaimer Policy And FTC Affiliate Disclosure |. It has fixed U-notch rear sights and black front sights, a barrel length of 1.87 inches, and weighs in at only 17 ounces. From an effectiveness standpoint, I think the advantage of the magnum is capacity. This makes the cartridge a great option for concealed carry and home defense. The .30-30 shoots flatter, has about 100Y better range and is generally cheaper by the box. Another good thing about the .327 Federal Magnum is, as with the H&R Magnumâs advantage over the .38 Special, typical small-frame revolvers chambered for the .357 Magnum can only hold up to five rounds in the cylinder, but small-frame revolvers chambered for the .327 Federal Magnum can hold up to six rounds, which translates to a 20% advantage in ammo carrying capacity. So you might want to do a bit of research on the matter first. Lower demand means lower supply, and the few who are really committed to this cartridge have to put up with a higher per-round price. I really enjoy shooting Single Seven and reloading for it. It is. Both come in round barrels with the rifle having a 20-inch barrel and a 10-round tube mag, while the carbine has a 16.5-inch barrel and a 7-round tube mag. The other two .44s were way behind. While thereâs absolutely no reason to shoot all those weaker .32-caliber cartridges in a revolver chambered for a much modern and significantly more potent cartridge, itâs always good to have options, e.g. In addition, while revolvers chambered for the .357 Magnum can shoot both the .357 Magnum and the .38 Special, revolvers chambered for the .327 Federal Magnum can shoot the .327 Federal Magnum, the .32 H&R Magnum, the .32 S&W Long and the .32 S&W Short. With the introduction of the .38 Special, the rimmed revolver cartridge that gave birth to the .357 Magnum and to this day still enjoys widespread use all over the world with its good ballistic performance (it uses a heavier 158-grain .355-caliber bullet propelled to 950 feet per second amounting to ~300 foot-pounds of force), both the .32 S&W Short and the .32 S&W Long faded into near obscurity.if(typeof __ez_fad_position != 'undefined'){__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-gunnewsdaily_com-box-4-0')}; Today, even with some ammo manufacturers (e.g. The .327 Federal Magnum was met with negative criticism by most revolver enthusiasts when it was released, but 10 years later it has become extremely popular among revolver enthusiasts, particularly those who prefer small-frame revolvers over any other revolver size or any semi-auto handgun. 9 if youâre shooting them in a rifle. The 357 Maximum is usually about 25-50% more projectile mass at a slightly lower velocity. A testament to the .357 Magnumâs great track record as an effective man-stopper is the fact that there have been a few handgun cartridges developed to copy its ballistic performance. Your email address will not be published. In 1982, the design was completed and two years later, it was introduced as the .32 H&R Magnum. Iâm not sure if this is due to how the Winchester action works, or if it has more to do with how I was operating it. This super-high pressure rating means the cartridge can be loaded with more powder to propel bullets much heavier than those its ancestor, the .32 S&W Short, used (older 85-grain bullets vs. modern bullets weighing anywhere from 100 to even 130 grains) at velocities reaching north of 1,600 feet per second out of a snub-nose revolver. I just got back from the range first time shooting my new 686 and I felt very very little recoil with the .357 and almost no recoil from the 38âs The only reason I ⦠Its less recoil is notable when compared to the 45-70âs heavier recoil. For hunting, Buffalo Bore offers a super hot load using 130-grain hard cast Keith-style bullets with velocities of up to 1,300 feet per second out of a 3-inch barrel. I, personally, killed a 140 pound Whitetail with a .357 Magnum. More than eight decades after the .32 S&W Long came out, Federal Premium Ammunition had a joint venture with Harrington & Richardson, a subsidiary of the Remington Outdoor Company. Gun News Daily is the longest running gun news website in the US. Can you get 39gr of powder into a .357 magnum case? It retails for $669; , another light-weight, six shot, snub-nose revolver also with the monolithic frame made from 400 series stainless steel. This isnât an autoloader vs. revolver article though, so we wonât get too much into this topic. GâDay Mike from New Zealand â where Iâm shooting a 4 inch Ruger SP101 & loving the gun and caliber. The other two are medium-frame revolvers: a GP100 stainless steel with a 4.20-inch barrel and seven shots in the cylinder, and a Blackhawk which is available in, These revolvers kind of defeat the purpose of the cartridge in my opinion but if youâre interested, you can always call their Rugerâs. At 300, the Springfield drops 13 inches, while the Winchester drops almost 28. The objective was to create an even more powerful .32-caliber revolver cartridge. He's a researcher, data analyst and writer by trade and strongly adheres to conservatismâa stalwart of the right to keep and bear arms. You are using an out of date browser. Recoil. Thereâs one available on. Great article. And notwithstanding the fact that it was designed primarily as a snub-nose revolver cartridge, some of the hottest .327 Federal Magnum loads that use hard cast lead bullets in a 20-inch barrel rifle should be, Of course, power comes with a price (more on ammo prices below). , also a lever-action carbine with a 16.5-inch octagonal barrel and can hold seven rounds in its tube mag. It may not display this or other websites correctly. He died because of gangrene eight days after being shot. but if you can find one, you should be able to purchase these for around $300 or less, used. The .32 S&W Long uses the same 0.312-inch diameter bullet but seated in a 0.92-inch case, around 50% longer than its parent cartridge case which meant that it wouldnât chamber in any of the small pocket revolvers (the .32 S&W Short would chamber in .32 S&W Long revolvers though). For comparison, the .32 H&R Magnumâs case has a SAAMI rating of only up to 21,000 CUP. No direct experience, but I can run the numbers for you. This makes this .32-caliber cartridge suitable for self-defense and larger (up to coyote-size) varmint hunting. The only way around this issue is to hand-load. After finishing college and getting a job, I was able to save enough to buy myself a NIB, I read all the books and online articles about it that I could find and realized that there is a reason why after being designed and developed by the legendary, Personally, being a wheelgun type of guy, I donât think any of these newer autoloader .357 Magnum knockoffs could ever replace the old but venerable handgun cartridge they attempt to copy.Â, Now Iâve been hearing about the .327 Federal Magnum for less than a decade now. Thereâs one available on GunsForSale.com selling for $715 but we wouldnât know for sure when someone might purchase it. That's not to say I wouldn't use a 30-30, both my father and daughter have used 336's in 30-30 for deer the last two years. Info on these arenât even available on, in a 2.2-inch barrel configuration on sale for $399 (but given Charter Armsâ, If you could find some in your local LGS, they usually sell for around $20 to $35 for a box of 20. I am interested in getting a Marlin lever action rifle, and am wondering what. Join 70,000 Readers For Our Weekly Discounts. Depending on the bullet weight, powder charge and velocity, out of a 3-1/16-inch barrel, hot .327 Federal Magnum loads can produce muzzle energies that can go as high up as ~600 foot-pounds of force, rivaling that of some of the warmer .357 Magnum loads but with less recoil and muzzle flip out of a snub-nose revolver. Required fields are marked *. I handload for 45 Colt, 45/70 and 30-30 among numerous others. This began my love affair with the .38-55 and it is why I refer to it as the "gentle medium bore." Some cartridges that quickly come to mind are the .357 SIG, the more recent 960 Rowland, and the .327 Federal Magnum, among others. It doesn't have much more recoil than the .357 and both are comfortable enough for extended range sessions. If your .30/30 is not a full size gun, I wouldn't let him shoot it. Three of the .44s started out at around 1600 ft-lbs. Its recoil is sufficient to flip the muzzle a good 30 degrees when even an experienced shooter fires it. Under the same conditions, the .30-30 drops 7.7 inches. I am Totally Satisfied with every aspect of this personal self-defense rig !!! In 1878, UMC (Union Metallic Cartridge) designed and developed the .32 S&W, a rimmed cartridge which, by todayâs standards, has an awfully unimpressive ballistic performance. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. in situations where ammo shortage is an issue, or if thereâs an abundance of brass for weaker .32-caliber cartridges and the shooter doesnât mind reloading (though these would not really be practical for any purpose outside of target shooting and plinking). This makes any .327 Federal Magnum revolver a multi-caliber platform able to shoot five different calibers â kind of similar to the. It also retails for $945; The Big Boy Steel, available in both rifle and carbine configurations, with again the same model number. The .30-30 Winchester has the unique claim of being the first cartridge designed to run on both black powder and the revolutionary smokeless powder. But Iâve always had the impression that itâs just a smaller and weaker version of the .357 Magnum. Sadly, as with other not-so-popular handgun cartridges, the .327 Federal Magnum struggles in the ammo availability department. It would have to be designed around Rugerâs snub-nose revolver platform: the solidly-built SP101.if(typeof __ez_fad_position != 'undefined'){__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-gunnewsdaily_com-banner-1-0')}; A year after the design of the cartridge was completed, the more powerful offspring of the .32 H&R Magnum was born. This cartridge was designed specifically for light recoil. These two semi-auto handgun cartridges were developed to mimic the .357 Magnumâs ballistic performance to a certain extent, but both share a common weakness: limited variation in bullet weights. If you need more info on ammo availability, feel free to watch this video: If you could find some in your local LGS, they usually sell for around $20 to $35 for a box of 20. If youâre going to enjoy shooting this fine caliber, you will really need to get into reloading for the time being. The performance of 30-30 vs 308 in the short-range shooting is almost the same. The .327 Federal Magnum: A Good .357 Magnum Alternative? As it is, thereâs just no way to get around this issue. Various calibers. Back when I was a kid Iâd watch The Lone Ranger with my grandfather, and growing up Iâd also see movies like The Silence of the Lambs, Police Academy 2, Rolling Thunder, etc. When you compare a .357 Mag. Before the turn of that century, Smith and Wesson introduced their Hand Ejector model chambered for the .32 S&W Long (not to be confused with the .32 Long Colt), a new cartridge based on the .32 S&W Short. and .243 Win. load that will deliver the same level ⦠Or you can start with 12.5 grains of Accurate No. Uh... Dick, I think you want to look up those numbers again - that weight bullet with that kind of speed for a .357?? And boy oh boy, I think Iâm about to have a love affair with it. Not everyone realizes it, but the old 30-30 Winchester is a joke. Special and .38-55, all with standard velocity loads. I've got Marlins in .357 mag., .41 mag., .30-30 and .45-70, The .357 is the most fun for plinking and is cheap to load. The felt recoil with either is more than with 357 Sig in a 229. The .327 Federal Magnumâs ballistic performance is impressive, to say the least. Also, because the .32 H&R Magnum is a smaller diameter cartridge, small-frame revolvers that typically only hold five .38 Special rounds in the cylinder can be made to hold six .32 H&R Magnum rounds. That 125-grain Remington .357, again, has proven to be an outlier. Since 2001, we have provided the latest in gun rights news, tech reviews and product information. , a writer for Rifle Magazine, with info on load development if you want to come up with your own custom loads. The two companies had the goal of developing and producing a more powerful .32-caliber revolver cartridge. (Yes i know it's for a rifle, but some places don't care and call it handgun ammo). If your budget doesnât allow it, you can still enjoy shooting this cartridge by reloading your own ammo. Shooting Times has info on how to reload the .327 Federal Magnum, you can read through their blog if you want to know more. These are Ruger (which shouldnât come as a surprise â they co-designed and co-developed the cartridge with Federal), and just late last year, Henry Arms. When I was 10 years old, my father bought himself a used S&W 686 â back then I didnât really care too much about firearm brands and models and the calibers theyâre chambered for. It was like ages ago when I first heard of the .357 Magnum. After finishing college and getting a job, I was able to save enough to buy myself a NIB Taurus 689, and thatâs when I really started falling in love with the .357 Magnum.if(typeof __ez_fad_position != 'undefined'){__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-gunnewsdaily_com-box-3-0')}; I read all the books and online articles about it that I could find and realized that there is a reason why after being designed and developed by the legendary Elmer Keith some 84 years ago, even with the advent of modern autoloaders and rimless cartridges, it was, is, and will remain to be one of the best options for self-defense. has some of the hottest .327 Federal Magnum loads available online. Remington and Magtech, to name a few) still producing these two cartridges, existing firearms chambered solely for both can only be seen in museums. Years later I would do research and find out why some cartridges are longer compared to others, but that wouldnât be after a few more years. As for the 357 Maximum in a 10" barrel vs. 7-30 Waters in a super 14 .... the Maximum has a bit more recoil but can be loaded to suit the shooter. Except for case length, the .38 and .357 are virtually identical. It is also retailing for $669. of recoil with the 150 grain bullet and 11.0 lbs. The 12 gauge produces even more recoil than that. As for me, I really hope that with Henry Arms recently entering the .32-caliber rifle manufacturing arena, interest in the .327 Federal Magnum will be invigorated (Iâm looking at your. That sounds way too high. It was like ages ago when I first heard of the, When I was 10 years old, my father bought himself a used, All I really knew about that gun was that itâs bigger than any of his other handguns and the rounds itâs loaded with are longer and thinner compared to his other handgunsâ cartridges.Â. The concept of .32 caliber cartridges for small-frame revolversâ use just refuses to die. It would have to be designed around Rugerâs snub-nose revolver platform: the solidly-built, This allows for the .327 Federal Magnumâs case to handle more pressure, exceeding even that of the .357 Magnumâs. We were both surprised to find the .38-55 was definitely the softest shooting of the three calibers. The .357 Magnum stayed at the top of the heap in the personal defense market for a very long time. .350L vs 30-30 vs .357M vs .44M Let me start out by saying all four of these cartridges are more than capable of killing Whitetail Deer by the truck-load. Itâs because of the fact that being autoloader cartridges, they have to adhere to a certain standard in a cartridgeâs overall length and chamber pressure. We could find many reasons to ONLY buy a .38 Special firearm. 30-30's were simply designed for rifle barrels and one has to get creative at the loading bench to get around that fact. with the 170 grain bullet. For re-loaders, the .327 Mag is a pretty straightforward bench job. Taurus also had a few different 6-shot small-frame revolvers chambered for the .327 Federal Magnum, among them a 2-inch barrel model called the Taurus 327, but theyâre currently not in production. These are Ruger (which shouldnât come as a surprise â they co-designed and co-developed the cartridge with Federal), and just late last year. JavaScript is disabled. It is a bit on the pricey side but if you can bag a whitetail with a single round, it will be more than worth it. Lastly, Charter Arms used to manufacture a few different revolvers chambered in .327 Federal Magnum under their Patriot product line. It doesnât make a lot of sense when you can purchase .357 Magnum ammo cheaper. From this little comparison youâll note some eye-opening numbers, especially between the 30-30 Win. It deserves nothing less than the same popularity handgun calibers in its weight class enjoy. I'm only doing 4 grains for cowboy and they still have a little kick. . Leon Czolgosz, the assassin, shot the president two times in the abdomen. If youâre going to enjoy shooting this fine caliber, you will really need to get into reloading for the time being. Smith and Wesson used to manufacture a 6-shot J-frame revolver with a 3-inch barrel called the S&W 632, but theyâve stopped the production of these revolvers for a while. I also did a fair amount of research on the 960 Rowland (but being only released just a few years ago, there isnât enough data to write a good piece on it). I started out hunting with a early 1950s 336 30-30 but the last few years I've switched over to a .35 rem. Currently, there are only two firearms manufacturers in the US that are building guns chambered for the .327 Federal Magnum. The .30-30 is a better choice for medium to large game though the magnum will do the job within its effective range. It uses the same exact bullet diameter and case diameter as its progenitor cartridges, but its case is 0.125 inches longer than the .327 H&R Magnumâs, greatly strengthened thanks to advancements in modern metallurgy and heat treatment.