The Amazing Federal .327 Magnum Cartridge
Hello
I have found the new
Federal .327 Magnum Cartridge to be
a welcomed one, But I am a Lover of the .32 Cartridge to begin with. I have always favored
the supreme accuracy of the round in either
.32 S&W Long form or the newer
Anemic .32 H&R Magnum which from it's factory Load ballistics barely Edges the .38 Special cartridge in Factory Loaded form. This Federal .327 Magnum Cartridge is
NOT Your typical .32 round as the Pressures of it are
double of what the Older .32 H&R Magnum were, But it sheds some Light on
what the Older .32 H&R Magnum Should have been.
I am a S&W revolver Kind of person they are the only handguns I own. I have had a Model 16-4 Chambered in The anemic .32 H&R Magnum for about Five years now, and being a hand Loader have
Taken it to levels that some would shudder at. I Managed to Load it to the Point where it was
Blowing the Magnum small Pistol primers out, so I switched over to
small Rifle Primers and went a bit Farther. What I saw with this round is the harder it is
Pushed, it seemed to Like it and the Groups shrank. I stopped Loading it that hot when I Ran out of
case Length room to load it any hotter but I Tested some of my Hotter loads and they showed to be Traveling at
1450 FPS which is close to what we see from a .357 Magnum and doing it accurately.
I started reading about this New Federal .327 Magnum cartridge when it first came out a few years ago, and Patiently awaited for S&W to bring it out in
a Medium size Target style handgun to which there was No avail. They currently make it in a
Target sighted-J-frame revolver, but to me, they are
NOT a Target size performing handgun as I feel the frames are too small and they do not have the smooth action feel that can be Obtained from The Larger K-Frame revolvers, so I Kind of
gave up on the Idea of Buying a new S&W revolver chambered in the .327 magnum in a K-Frame sized gun. I then read where
Hamilton Bowen was Converting existing Model 16-4's being the .32 H&R Magnum revolver's over to the new Federal .327 Magnums. Hamilton Bowen Lives just 20 Minutes from my home so I called and set up a meeting with him to discuss the
Pro's and Con's of converting an existing .32 H&R Magnum to this new Hotter round. After a half hour, he had my mind fully made up, that it would only be right to convert my existing .32 H&R Magnum revolver over to the new .327 Magnum so I went back home Grabbed it and left the cylinder and crane for him to Modify. The Process took
two weeks and what he does is
Lengthens the cylinder Throats of the .32 H&R magnum roughly
1/8" to accept and fire the new .327 Magnum round. The conversion is rather cheap at
just $95.00 and his reassurance that I would adore this caliber and it's accuracy, it
was a no Brainier to me.
Bowen called me Just Two weeks prior to the Opening of our Deer season here in East Tennessee last Fall to tell me that my cylinder was done and ready for pick up. I had to
scarf some once fired brass from a friend in Florida who shipped it to me as Federal was back Logged for ammo on the round, and none was to be had out there. I Put together what looked to be
a very Potent hunting load for it using Accurate Arm's Powder, a Sierra 90 Grain sports master Hollow point and a CCI Magnum primer. I Tested and liked the load as it Proved to be
super accurate at the 20 Yard line producing a Dime size six shot group and clocked
an amazing 1580 FPS surpassing the Famous .357 Magnum round. I took my son in Law with me the following weekend to walk out and see where we were going to sit on opening day of Deer season on my Friends farm. We were greeted by him when we arrived and he had
a grave concern over what he called a
Very large Wild Cat that had been in the area. According to him it had been in his back Yard
twice during daylight hours and the second time tried to
attack his house Cat's and snarled at his wife when she saw it and went to the back yard to retrieve his house cats. This statement got
my Blood Pumping as I felt the Perfect Test for this new .327 magnum would be that Wild Cat should I see while hunting Deer there, so I reassured him if it showed up while I was there Hunting
I certainly would Place a dark cloud on his day. On the way home I told my Son In law that this Cat sure would be nice to bag and I would Like Nothing better than to
Bag it with my Handgun. I think he felt a Task like this would be impossible, but he had shot with me before on the range and Knew I practiced a lot and
I could be accurate and Deadly when I wanted to with a hand gun.
Once I arrived back home I Loaded a Bunch of rounds for this gun and Headed to the range the Very next day. I felt
if I was going to bag this wild cat with a handgun it would take much practice with the new caliber to get used to it. I fired the gun
in Excess of 500 times prior to the Opening day of our deer season here and felt confident I could and would Kill that Wild Cat
should it cross my Path. The Night before Deer season I said to my Wife, that I Planned on
Killing that Wild Cat should I see it as I could Bag a Deer anytime, and
a wild Cat Kill would be Rare with a handgun, let alone a Brand new Up-Proven Caliber. Her comment was
"To Forget it, as I would Never even see it, let alone Get a shot off at it". As I laid there unable to sleep that evening before Deer season as most of us Do being Pumped up on the Hunt, my mind began to wander as I wondered if I would see this Wild Cat ? I then drifted off to sleep and was
awoken by a Dream about this wild Cat about 3:00 AM. I had seen this Cat in my Dream up high on a Ridge above me, and spun around to Take it with my S&W revolver. I fired one shot and it Instantly Killed the cat but it's
wild Scream was what awoken me and made me Jump in the bad awakening her. She asked
what was wrong and when I told her I had a wild dream about this Cat, she sighed and said "
I was Ate Up about it, and to go back to sleep". I rolled over, but could not get back to sleep. I got up before the alarm went off at 4:45 AM that Morning so I was getting my Hunting gear out before she got up. I Normally Hunt in
Blaze orange but this year and after that dream I had, I changed my plans and got out my
Full Camouflage hunting clothes. My son In law showed up for the 100 Mile ride down to where we Planned to Hunt, and my wife was no doubt having a good time
Busting my stones as she told him about my Wild Dream. She then told him to
watch over me that day as that is all she heard about since we learned of this wild cat being in the area. We got there in The dark and walked down into the woods to get seated. I Placed him then went up wind about 200 yards from him to where I felt would be a good spot. As it broke light I saw a main deer run just 10 Yards below me as I was down hill about 30-40 Yards from an Open field of Corn still standing. The wind was low and it was rather warm that morning being about 60 Degrees.
About a Quarter to Eight I had
wondered Why I had not seen any Deer as I Knew this was a good spot and had hunted it and Killed deer her every year I hunted it for the past three years, and have done this
all before Eight O-Clock. It then hit me that perhaps the reason I had Not seen any Deer was that
this Wild Cat was in the woods. I started looking very close for movement as we all do when we are Hunting Intensely, and I saw
a very small movement about 100 Yards off just above me to the west on the leading edge of the Corn field. I could not make out just what it was, but saw it was moving very slowly. As it got about 50 Yard from me, I saw it and
it was That Wild Cat and he was headed right my way. I Pulled my S&W out of It's shoulder rig and laid it slowly in my Lap awaiting him. he was
very cautious and what seemed
like Hours of waiting on him to get in close enough was more than Likely
less than Five Minutes. He then appeared in an Opening right above me close to some Thorn apple trees and walked out into The Open. I raised my S&W and took aim. I was
Shaking badly as I lowered the sights on his chest area and had to keep reminding myself that
this was The shot of a Lifetime so calm down. I mentally told myself the gun will do it along with the load I had made for it, if I did my Job right. I Then stopped shaking and cocked the hammer back. That Cat had Heard the action noise of my revolver and froze in his Tracks. He looked straight at me and
began to snarl. I squeezed off the shot and it flipped him over on his back. He Kicked Three times and fell Dead. I could not believe it at first that I had Bagged this animal, but soon that Passed as he laid there Motionless so I called my son in law with my cell phone to tell him the Good news.
He answered my call and asked me
if I had Killed a buck ? I said Nope, better than that,
I Bagged that Wild Cat. He Laughed at me, and said
"Dad, stop will ya about that Cat" ? I told him it was True it laid dead and I shot it with my handgun Just Like I had told him I would if I saw it. He Then Knew I was not Kidding and said he would be right there. I could hear him
running my way and had to stop him with a soft whistle as he was about to Pass me. This was
his First Year in the woods hunting and he could not believe I had Killed a large wild Cat with my revolver. He approached me and asked where it was as I Pointed towards where it laid. He started to walk over to it, but I stopped him telling him to wait a few minutes to make certain it was dead. I Lit a smoke, and Basked in The the Glory & Victory of my hunt, then it occurred to me I had to call that wife of mine and Placed the call. She answered and asked
how big my Buck was, and I had to stop her to tell her I did not score a buck, but I did score that Big wild Cat. She said
to stop it, and I told here I did not have time for this Non-Sense as I handed the Phone to our son in law. I swear, he was more excited about it than I was as he told her
"It's True He Killed that Big Wild Cat, Just Like he said he would with His S&W" Once he hung up, we walked up to where it laid. It was dead so I Pulled it out of the brush it landed in after I shot it. My son in law could not believe the size of it as it emerged out from under the brush it had laid dead in. I told him I was going to
field dress it as the warmer Temperatures that day would ruin the pelt if I did not do it. I was Impressed with it's stomach as it was
the size of a Youth Football and chocked full of Fresh cotton Tail rabbit.
While I was dressing it out, My son Law walked back down to where I was sitting when I shot it and then back to me. He said I had shot it
at a true 35 Yards. The distance did not surprise me, as I knew what the round would do and that distance was nothing for this Hot round. Once I was done dressing it out, I checked the distance I had shot it myself and he was right it was 35 yards. We each grabbed a leg and began to carry the cat back to my Truck which was about 1/4 mile from where we were hunting. We had to stop a couple of times as both of us had
tired arm muscles from carrying it. My son in law asked me how much I felt it weighed and I
Guesstimated it at about 30 Pounds. Once we got back to the farm I laid it on a
grain scale in the barn and it showed to weigh
41 Pounds dressed out. I figure live weight had to make this cat up
over 50 Pounds and that is a Very large Cat here in East Tennessee. My friend emerged from his house with a smile on his face when he saw us carrying it. Once he got to us he said that was The cat he had seen for sure, and
was now glad it was dead.. My son in law on the way home that day, asked me what I was going to do with it ? I told him I had never killed a wild cat, and that I Planned on having this one fully Mounted. I also added ,that he would never forget his First day in the woods hunting and when
I die he could have the full mount of it to show and share it with his Kids and grand kids. I have found a Fondness for this cartridge and now know it is fully capable of taking what ever I lay the sights of my revolver on with it. Below is Pictures of it, and Later a Picture of it on my own large scale at home showing it to weigh 41 Pounds dressed out... This most definatly is NOT Your typical Meak .32 round...Hammerdown