Whatever Happened to the .327 Mag ?

[leVieux]

I really thought that I’d seen a detailed discussion of the Federal .327 Magnum on TGT, but can’t find it now.

Whatever happened to this once-promising “new” cartridge and the guns chambered for it ?

leVieux

 

[smittyb]

I and a few others have talked about it a fair amount here in the past.
I am a huge fan off the round, own 5 revolvers and one lever gun chambered for it.

 

[Grumps21]

.327 Federal Magnum?

Saw an SP101 in .327 Federal Magnum today at a LGS. It caught my eye, and you all know where that leads...In the past I had dismissed that caliber out of hand, assuming it would be another flash in the pan cartridge destined for limited availability. Any thoughts, suggestions or advice before I...

www.texasguntalk.com

.327 Federal Magnum chambering

This round has been out for a few years now, and there's still not a whole of info. on it. There's a twofold reason for my curiosity of this round. The first being, a lady friend of mine is finally interested in getting a home defense gun, but, absolutely refuses, under any circumstance, to...

www.texasguntalk.com

 

[Moonpie]

The caliber suffered from several angles.
1.) There ammunition was expensive, difficult to find, very limited bullet selection, no reasonable practice ammo availability.
2.) Firearm selections very limited.
3.) The round itself was obnoxious to fire. Muzzle blast, especially indoors, was excessive. Recoil and report were no slouches either.

I played around with it for a while. I found it unpleasant to fire. Even out of a heavy revolver.
The ammo for it was/still is way way more expensive than it should be. Even the lesser powered.32H&R and .32 S&W were expensive and difficult to find.
You must have reasonably priced ammo on the shelves for folks to practice with if you expect your new caliber to succeed. Shopped for .32acp lately?
IMO the .32 H&R is the better cartridge. It really deserves to be more popular but that’s another thread.
S&W should’ve done an eight rd. K frame for it. No gunmakers really did much with it. Other than a couple of models from Ruger there wasn’t any.
For some reason .32caliber doesn’t sell well. Yet we get the 30 Super Carry. Go figure.
The 30sc will suffer the same fate.

 

[smittyb]

The caliber suffered from several angles.
1.) There ammunition was expensive, difficult to find, very limited bullet selection, no reasonable practice ammo availability.
2.) Firearm selections very limited.
3.) The round itself was obnoxious to fire. Muzzle blast, especially indoors, was excessive. Recoil and report were no slouches either.

I played around with it for a while. I found it unpleasant to fire. Even out of a heavy revolver.
The ammo for it was/still is way way more expensive than it should be. Even the lesser powered.32H&R and .32 S&W were expensive and difficult to find.
You must have reasonably priced ammo on the shelves for folks to practice with if you expect your new caliber to succeed. Shopped for .32acp lately?
IMO the .32 H&R is the better cartridge. It really deserves to be more popular but that’s another thread.
S&W should’ve done an eight rd. K frame for it. No gunmakers really did much with it. Other than a couple of models from Ruger there wasn’t any.
For some reason .32caliber doesn’t sell well. Yet we get the 30 Super Carry. Go figure.
The 30sc will suffer the same fate.

I realize I’m outside the norm here, and you can’t find 327 at your local Academy, but I got into 2 cases of FEDERAL American Eagle for something stupid cheap when federal had there rebate a few years ago. If I remember right, I have around 25 cents per round into it.
As it’s a straight walled rimmed cartridge, I should have enough brass to last me a lifetime.

 

[Moonpie]

I realize I’m outside the norm here, and you can’t find 327 at your local Academy, but I got into 2 cases of FEDERAL American Eagle for something stupid cheap when federal had there rebate a few years ago. If I remember right, I have around 25 cents per round into it.
As it’s a straight walled rimmed cartridge, I should have enough brass to last me a lifetime.

You need to look at it from the standard issue gun dude direction. These folks don’t know on-line bulk buying. Many will never cough up $400 for a case of ammo or ever reload. They might buy 200rds a year. They want ammo from Academy not Joe’s Gun Shop & Dog Grooming Shop over in the bad part of town. They will not pay big bucks for .32 stuff when 9mm is sitting there at half the price. Kevin likes polymer these days anyway.
Like it or not they make up the majority of gun buyers. Guys like you and I are kinda rare. Not here on the forum but out there in the wild.

 

[smittyb]

Whatever happened to this once-promising “new” cartridge and the guns chambered for it

If anyone is tired of theirs because they can’t find ammo for it, I’m always a buyer.

 

[dsgrey]

Shopped for .32acp lately?I

It's 2x the price of just a few years ago! Luckily I have a stash of Fiocchi but could always use more.

 

[Moonpie]

It's 2x the price of just a few years ago! Luckily I have a stash of Fiocchi but could always use more.

Yeah. It’s crazy what they’re asking nowadays.
Pre-covid I lucked into a screaming deal on a few cases. Still shooting off that but have severely cut back on usage.
Damn shame really. The little Beretta 81 is a real sweetheart to shoot.
Moonpie is a sad panda over this.

 

[Lonesome Dove]

It was the flavor of the month but without any flavor.

 

[V-Tach]

.50 AE may be going down the same path............

 

[Maverick44]

It's got a cult following, but wasn't right for the mainstream buyers. It was introduced as a self defense revolver round in a market that had already mostly switched over to semi autos. That was going to be an uphill fight as it was. The fact that they seemed to half ass it and not offer very many guns in it pretty well guaranteed it's death.

 

[zackmars]

Ammo cross compatibility only really helps if the cross compatible ammo is cheap and easy to find.

Plus it's not like the guns were any cheaper

 

[PinnedandRecessed]

.50 AE may be going down the same path............

Yes and No. Not many firearms chambered for it but the Desert Eagle will live forever in pop culture and, subsequently, so will the 50AE.

 

[zackmars]

.50 AE may be going down the same path............

I don't think anyone expected .50AE to be anything other than what it is.

 

[Maverick44]

At least it's not 45 GAP.

 

[Vaquero]

.327 couldn't beat. 357.

Maths.

 

[zackmars]

At least it's not 45 GAP.

If you went back to 2004 and had no idea if the AWB would sunset or not, .45GAP makes some sense.


.327 and .32 H&R never made sense. It's not like there's been any large amounts of "cheap" .32 calibers

 

[zackmars]

.327 couldn't beat. 357.

Maths.

357 is 356.673 more powerful than
.327

 

[smittyb]

.327 and .32 H&R never made sense. It's not like there's been any large amounts of "cheap" .32 calibers

I guess it depends on your definition of cheap, but 4 years ago I could have pointed you to some pretty good deals on 32 H&R.