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| from Guns & Ammo April 2008 |
Ruger SP101.327 Magnum
Speer has long had a handle on how to make Gold Dot bullets, and a .32 of 115 grains going 1,300 fps is going to perform very much like a 9mm 115-grain Gold Dot going 1,300 fps. Ballistic testing of the .327 showed it to be superior to a .38 snubbie. I got more gel penetration with the .327 (15 inches) than the .38 (12-plus inches) and greater expansion as well.
You can shoot anything from the wimpiest .32 S&W (left) up to the .327 in your SP-101. For the mildest recoil this side of a .22LR, dusty old boxes of .32 S&W are hard to beat.
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You're saying, "Sure, Federal promises 1,300 fps, but in that short barrel you aren't going to get it." The boxes I have are early-run engineering samples. I shot them on a dreary winter day with a temperature out in the low 20s. The SP101 delivered the 115-grain Gold Dots at 1,316 fps over my CED chronograph. I had a bunch of 9mm ammo along as well, testing them in two pistols.
Over a dozen different 115-grain 9mm loads, only two delivered more velocity than the .327 Federal Magnum did. And in both instances, those 9mm loads did so only out of the five-inch-barreled pistol, not the compact 9mm.
Untitled Document
.32 CHRONOGRAPH COMPARISON |
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| LOAD |
BULLET WEIGHT (gr.) |
AVG VELOCITY (fps) |
| Federal .327 Mag. Gold Dot JHP |
115 |
1,316 |
| Black HIlls .32 H&R Mag. JHP |
85 |
995 |
| Black HIlls .32 H&R Mag. LRN |
98 |
664 |
| Winchester .32 S&W LRN |
98 |
584 |
| MagTech .32 S&W Long LRN |
98 |
664 |
Now, there will be some who will use their experience with earlier .32s and declare it "a fine round for the ladies and for new shooters." Excuse me, but weren't you paying attention to the "115 at 1,316" part? The SP101 kicks, and it kicks pretty briskly. The .327 Federal Magnum, with the factory full-power loads, is not a ladies' or beginner's load. You want the performance, you have to pay the price. If you want more than the .327 delivers, you have to go to the .357 Magnum, and having done so you will pay mightily for it. An SP101 in .357 delivers a 125-grain JHP at more than 1,300 fps, but you get only five shots and muzzle blast and recoil that could make a brass monkey flinch. With the .327 Federal Magnum you get much more than a 9mm or .38 Special in the same gun; you get six shots instead of five, and you get it at much less recoil than the .357.
And best of all, you can still shoot all the lesser .32s in it. If you wanted to reload it, the .327 is fully capable of being throttled back to those loads for really cheap, low-recoil practice and fun.
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