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S&W Performance Center 327 TRR8 and S&W M&P 327 R8
A Day at the Range
January 2018
Had a - chilly and windy - day at the range. I hadn't fired my S&W 327 TRR8 in a long time and my trigger finger was itching for it. Next to it in the safe was my S&W M&P 327 R8. They are the same gun except for the sights, barrel shroud and rails. Both are Performance Center guns, and I think the trigger on the R8 is a little smoother. The TRR8 has often been my backpacking gun.
Cosmetically, the Performance Center stamp on the left side of the R8 frame is deep and sharp. The TRR8 has "PERFORMANCE CENTER" prominent on the left side of the barrel shroud, but the stamp on its frame is uneven and poorly done. "S&W 357 MAGNUM" is deeply cut on the left of the R8 barrel shroud, and the right of the TRR8, and the R8 has a clever circle of 8 dots around the number 8 on the right side of the shroud near the muzzle.
I don't think either gun is visually attractive, though I know others feel differently. The finish is a dull, purposeful black with barrel shrouds that look sickly, as though they failed the heat treatment.
****WARNING: WHINING ZONE!***
Each ships with a couple 8-round moon clips. They are very thin, and black. Drop one in the dirt, and it's gone. I realize they offer a quick reload, but carrying them even in a North Mountain stacked clip holder is a pain. They're huge. For comparison, I can easily carry one or even two N-frame S&W's concealed, but adding those clip holders to my belt, under a jacket, makes me look as though I've been shoplifting.
Also, the cartridges are so loose in them they wiggle and rattle, and will not easily align with the charge holes in the cylinder. It takes a lot of jiggling to get them in. That is unacceptable to me.
Worse, removing the fired shells from the clips is another pain. The clips flex easily, making things difficult, and they can be permanently bent. I see many others advertised as being better than the S&W-supplied ones, but some are a tad expensive for an accessory so easily lost or bent. I also see some people who state that only the S&W ones work reliably. I see no difference between any of them when it comes to reliability in my six-shooters, and the factory-supplied ones flex like trampolines.
Sooo, yet another accessory is offered to "de-moon" the clips. Uh huh. ANOTHER accessory I have to carry to enjoy the convenience of other accessories I have to carry. Erk.
Option two is a speed loader. I bought three 5-Star Firearms aluminum ones. They work fine, even though they seem not to hold the cartridges securely, allowing them to rattle substantially. However, while not a stealthy way to carry ammo they are secure, and they are quieter when carried in pouches made for them. But, there's that "shoplifting" image again.
I never liked speed loaders generally because of their bulk. These are the biggest, being made for eight cartridges. They might be fine for competition, but I can't see them for CCW. Pun intended.
I don't have a solution to this, other than to carry TWO 327 8-shooters. So, sometimes I do. The aluminum-scandium frame makes them notably lighter than a loaded steel 29.
BUT, I recall the first time I saw a revolver chambered for .45ACP, requiring moon clips. One fellow was using half-moon clips, such as were issued in WWI, he said. These he carried in a thin wallet that folded over his belt and was operated like a dump pouch.
Does anybody make those for the 327 eight-shooters?
I decided not to use the moon clips or speed loaders and just do it the old fashioned way, one or two at a time. It frustrated me too much to try aligning the moon clips or speed loaders.
I fired Fiocchi cartridges, 142-grain bullets rated at 1400+ fps, and handloads. Even though the 327 is not an all-steel gun, this ammo does not kick as hard as heavier bullets, and made the guns easy enough to shoot well. Firing DA off-hand I was knocking golf balls and spent shotgun shells around at 20 to 25 yards.
The R8 has a V-notch rear sight and I pre-hated it. SQUARE NOTCHES FOREVER! The TRR8 has a brass dot on the front sight (the R8 has a white one), and it occupies just the right amount of the square rear sight notch to suit me.
A digression:
I have owned or been issued Sigs since forever. Initially they had all-black sights with a square-notch rear. When three-dot and tritium sights became available I was in gun-sight heaven. THEN I was issued a Sig, don't remember the model (it was probably a P228), with a dot on the front sight and a dot under the rear notch. Hated it. I really can't remember whether I scored badly because they were just not "good" for me, or whether I just didn't WANT to do well with them because I was in a snit. Either way, I didn't do well with the gun. I whined until the armorer took it back and changed the sights: The front to a white dot, the rear to a white "post". *sigh*
I hated THAT one just as much. Three dots give the eye something to align, along with the top edges of the sights. For me, they're very fast. The post tried to get me to somehow connect it to the front dot, ignoring the black edges and tops of the sights. Disaster.
Our training officer was former Army Special Forces and built like a compact tank. Name was "Terry" so of course we called him
Terrible Terry. But not to his face. Or behind it. He lifted me by the scruff of my neck and said "We need to teach you how to look at sights." Who was *I* to argue!
First, of course, was muscle memory. Draw to a proper sight picture and dry fire hundreds and hundreds of times. Then, draw and fire ammo ONLY when the sight picture is perfect. Not perfect? Don't fire because that's rewarding bad form. Put it back in the holster and draw again.
He had me using the sights I was most familiar with, all black with a square rear notch. About the time I felt I was ready to bask in the glow of his praise he took my gun and taped over the rear sight and had me start all over again. Once I stopped whining about that, he introduced "post-dot" and "dot-over-dot" sights and expected me to perform no differently. One did NOT disappoint Terrible Terry.
Here's the takeaway. If you have to look at the sights to determine what they are doing, you've lost the fight. See below.
And now, back to our story.
And back to the R8 with the V-notch rear. After assuring myself I would hate it, I shot it just as well as the TRR8 with its square notch rear and I realized I had not even noticed the sights at all while I was using them - on either gun. Huh!
Izzat what I've been doing all along? Since Terrible Terry? Short answer: yes. I thought carefully about all the training and testing I'd had, and spoke with other aging veterans. We all say the same thing: OH how we LOVED such-and-such a sight. But we had no specific memory of how we used them. (No "Old Guy" memory comments, please.)
Digging out a representative sample of the guns I have kept or since acquired, and borrowing a few others, I went to the range and did some rapid shooting with each. The only sight not in the bunch was the dot-over-dot. I hate those . . ..
Any time I attempted to look at the sights long enough to decide how to use them, I slowed a lot and missed a lot. Fuggedaboudit, and I was hitting well. Well, well for an Old Guy, anyway. I had intended to pay attention to the R8 V-notch so I could critique it - unfavourably, of course. After loading and shooting three cylinders-full at a variety of targets at various distances, I realized I had not even noticed the sights and had to look at them again to remind myself the R8 had the V.
After another 100 rounds fired between the two guns, the old truth of what most affects accuracy was apparent: trigger control and grip.
For me, both guns were fun to plink with, using the Fiocchi ammo and my handloads, which are 125-gr JRN or JHPs bullets moving at about 1100 fps; mild recoil and blast, and easy enough to shoot accurately. I don't load ".38+P", preferring to load down .357 Magnum shells to about 900 fps. Works great. After chatting recently with another aging - and retired - vet (he's former Marine and LEO), we're going to haul our Ruger 10/22 rifles to the range and I'll take a double handful of S&W .357 Magnum revolvers. Can't wait to see what HE brings.
