Hello
A couple of Year's ago, I had Hamilton Bowen from Friendsville, Tennessee perform a Caliber Modification on my model 16-4 S&W revolver. He changed it from it's .32 H&R Factory chambering to the new Federal .327 Magnum. Shortly after I got it back I hand loaded some rounds for it as Factory Federal Ammo was non existent then, and harvested a Large Tennessee Bobcat with it during Deer season, less than Two week's after getting out of Bowen's shop. I was so fond of the Hand Load that I produced that I decided to take it back to the range and re-visit the very same load that took down my Bobcat.
It did a fine job piling up the Bobcat but now I want to try it out on some Deer.
The Hand load I assembled consists of a Sierra 90 Grain Sport's Master Bullet with a Hollow Point lead nose design. I used Accurate Arms # 7 Powder dispensed at 10.5 Grains and a CCI-350 Small Pistol Magnum primer with an AOL of 1.500" and heavy crimp. I also Put together a Heavy Target Load using a Rainier 100 Grain Hollow point bullet & Hornady HS-6 Powder dispensed at 7.7 Grains with a Standard Winchester small Pistol primer and medium crimp.
I took my Chrony F-1 velocity meter with me to the range and set it up to see exactly what these two loads were clocking, as I was so Pushed for time the last time I loaded it and took it hunting that I did not see what the velocity of the load really was. The average velocity of the 90 Grain Sierra Sports Master bullet's showed to be 1630 F.P.S. 14" In front of the barrel, while the Rainier bullet Target load showed to be a consitent 1230 F.P.S. The Sierra Bullet load extracted fine and showed to have Moderate medium flatness to the primers. The Rainier Bullet load extracted fine and showed milder primer flatness. Both Load's were shot from a Plastic Pistol Rest as shown below on the Range shooting bench at the 25 Yard line and I was Very Pleased with the accuracy of Both Loads that I tested.
I feel I can increase the Sierra Load some more with out pressure issues, and will do so my next trip to the Range.The spent Cases showed to be super clean in nature as far as the powder used being the Accurate Arm's # 7 Powder, but the Hodgen HS-6 showed some Light soot to it's spent cases. I retrieved the slugs shown behind the target back stop's that they were shot at, and as you would suspect the Sierra 90 Grain Hollow point bullet expanded Very much compared to The Rainier copper flashed hollow point bullets. I will work some more with the Sierra Bullet load to see if increasing it's velocity help's or hurts the accuracy, and I will do some experiments with Speer 115 Grain Gold Dot bullets that I have on hand in the near future, but I will also expand on the loads for the Rainier hollow point bullets as they seemed to keep most of their Pre-fired weight when I recovered them as shown from the Dirt Berm.
The Load information I have shown here was from my Past experience of working up the Federal .327 Magnum cartridge. Loads of this nature or velocity should Only be shot from a medium frame Gun as my S&W Model 16-4 is, for those that would like to work on their own loads I can't express enough caution when working with this round, Pressures of the Federal .327 Magnum run quit high compared to any other .32 caliber cartridge, so I would suggest hand loaders start at least 15% lower than what I have shown here and pay close attention to high pressure signs as you slowly work up with it. In other word's, I aint Responsible if you Blow up your gun or hurt Your self loading this round, do it carefully starting low and working up to Maximum Level's....
The Chrony set Up and a Pistol Rest in Position
The Six shot Results from the Sierra 90 Grain Sport's Master bullet load and Four Recovered Sierra slugs
The spent Cartidges of the Sierra Bullet load showing medium to heavy flatness to the primers
Four Sierra 90 Grain Slugs recovered from the Dirt Berm behind the Target stand's. A Special note while looking for these slugs I passed by Many .357 and .45 ACP Bullets in the Dirt. I could only find Four Sierra slugs as I dug 10" in the Berm Dirt for them, This aint your typical .32 Round, it is a True Magnum Cartridge.
This Target was also Six shot's at the 25 Yard line using the Rainier 100 Grain Hollow point Bullets. It's accuracy was very close to The Sierra bullet load, with Two Rainer slugs recovered from the Dirst berm
These are the Rainier Hollow point 100 Grain Bullet's that I found in the Dirt Berm. Note they kept most of their actual weight when recovered compared to The Sierra bullets these seemed to hold up better but did not expand near as much. They too were far past any other slugs I found in the dirt berm being .357 & .45 ACP slugs
In conclusion of my Testing Loads of the Federal .327 Magnum cartridge, I feel it will cleanly Take down a Buck Deer for me this hunting season if I do my Job right, all I need to do is have a buck walk into the sight plane of this Revolver. I have no Regrets of having Hamilton Bowen modify this gun to now shoot the Federal .327 Magnum cartridge, as when he was done matching the cylinder throats of this gun it fired the previous caliber of .32 H&R Magnum much more accurate as it did prior to him working on it, and to me, The Federal .327 Magnum Cartridge is everything that the .32 H&R Cartridge should have been....
A couple of Year's ago, I had Hamilton Bowen from Friendsville, Tennessee perform a Caliber Modification on my model 16-4 S&W revolver. He changed it from it's .32 H&R Factory chambering to the new Federal .327 Magnum. Shortly after I got it back I hand loaded some rounds for it as Factory Federal Ammo was non existent then, and harvested a Large Tennessee Bobcat with it during Deer season, less than Two week's after getting out of Bowen's shop. I was so fond of the Hand Load that I produced that I decided to take it back to the range and re-visit the very same load that took down my Bobcat.
It did a fine job piling up the Bobcat but now I want to try it out on some Deer.
The Hand load I assembled consists of a Sierra 90 Grain Sport's Master Bullet with a Hollow Point lead nose design. I used Accurate Arms # 7 Powder dispensed at 10.5 Grains and a CCI-350 Small Pistol Magnum primer with an AOL of 1.500" and heavy crimp. I also Put together a Heavy Target Load using a Rainier 100 Grain Hollow point bullet & Hornady HS-6 Powder dispensed at 7.7 Grains with a Standard Winchester small Pistol primer and medium crimp.I took my Chrony F-1 velocity meter with me to the range and set it up to see exactly what these two loads were clocking, as I was so Pushed for time the last time I loaded it and took it hunting that I did not see what the velocity of the load really was. The average velocity of the 90 Grain Sierra Sports Master bullet's showed to be 1630 F.P.S. 14" In front of the barrel, while the Rainier bullet Target load showed to be a consitent 1230 F.P.S. The Sierra Bullet load extracted fine and showed to have Moderate medium flatness to the primers. The Rainier Bullet load extracted fine and showed milder primer flatness. Both Load's were shot from a Plastic Pistol Rest as shown below on the Range shooting bench at the 25 Yard line and I was Very Pleased with the accuracy of Both Loads that I tested.
I feel I can increase the Sierra Load some more with out pressure issues, and will do so my next trip to the Range.The spent Cases showed to be super clean in nature as far as the powder used being the Accurate Arm's # 7 Powder, but the Hodgen HS-6 showed some Light soot to it's spent cases. I retrieved the slugs shown behind the target back stop's that they were shot at, and as you would suspect the Sierra 90 Grain Hollow point bullet expanded Very much compared to The Rainier copper flashed hollow point bullets. I will work some more with the Sierra Bullet load to see if increasing it's velocity help's or hurts the accuracy, and I will do some experiments with Speer 115 Grain Gold Dot bullets that I have on hand in the near future, but I will also expand on the loads for the Rainier hollow point bullets as they seemed to keep most of their Pre-fired weight when I recovered them as shown from the Dirt Berm.
The Load information I have shown here was from my Past experience of working up the Federal .327 Magnum cartridge. Loads of this nature or velocity should Only be shot from a medium frame Gun as my S&W Model 16-4 is, for those that would like to work on their own loads I can't express enough caution when working with this round, Pressures of the Federal .327 Magnum run quit high compared to any other .32 caliber cartridge, so I would suggest hand loaders start at least 15% lower than what I have shown here and pay close attention to high pressure signs as you slowly work up with it. In other word's, I aint Responsible if you Blow up your gun or hurt Your self loading this round, do it carefully starting low and working up to Maximum Level's....
The Chrony set Up and a Pistol Rest in Position
The Six shot Results from the Sierra 90 Grain Sport's Master bullet load and Four Recovered Sierra slugs
The spent Cartidges of the Sierra Bullet load showing medium to heavy flatness to the primers
Four Sierra 90 Grain Slugs recovered from the Dirt Berm behind the Target stand's. A Special note while looking for these slugs I passed by Many .357 and .45 ACP Bullets in the Dirt. I could only find Four Sierra slugs as I dug 10" in the Berm Dirt for them, This aint your typical .32 Round, it is a True Magnum Cartridge.
This Target was also Six shot's at the 25 Yard line using the Rainier 100 Grain Hollow point Bullets. It's accuracy was very close to The Sierra bullet load, with Two Rainer slugs recovered from the Dirst berm
These are the Rainier Hollow point 100 Grain Bullet's that I found in the Dirt Berm. Note they kept most of their actual weight when recovered compared to The Sierra bullets these seemed to hold up better but did not expand near as much. They too were far past any other slugs I found in the dirt berm being .357 & .45 ACP slugs
In conclusion of my Testing Loads of the Federal .327 Magnum cartridge, I feel it will cleanly Take down a Buck Deer for me this hunting season if I do my Job right, all I need to do is have a buck walk into the sight plane of this Revolver. I have no Regrets of having Hamilton Bowen modify this gun to now shoot the Federal .327 Magnum cartridge, as when he was done matching the cylinder throats of this gun it fired the previous caliber of .32 H&R Magnum much more accurate as it did prior to him working on it, and to me, The Federal .327 Magnum Cartridge is everything that the .32 H&R Cartridge should have been....
