.327 Federal Magnum Rifle Loads W

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by Richard Mann

.327 Federal Magnum Rifle Loads

When news of the .327 Federal cartridge was received by the shooting public, the reception was mixed. Comments ranging from: "This is great!" to "Another useless cartridge to keep gun store shelves full." were common. I fell into the first category because I have always had a thing for the .32 H&R Magnum ? and because I have enough common sense to recognize something good when I see it. Immediately, I wanted a lever-action rifle chambered for the .327 Federal Magnum.

After receiving a Ruger SP 101 .327 Federal Magnum and some ammunition, I checked to see if any of the three factory loads would cycle through the action of a Marlin 1894 in .32 H&R Magnum. Of course, the cartridges would not fully chamber, but all loads worked through the action just fine. It appeared opening the rifle's chamber to .327 Federal Magnum would be all that was required.

After further pondering, it was also decided to have the 20-inch barrel of the Marlin cut back to 16 inches and have a big loop lever installed along with an action and trigger job. The rifle was shipped to Jim Brockman for this work. If you're interested in just the cartridge conversion, you can obtain a reamer and gauges from 4D Reamers and open the chamber on an 1894 Marlin .32 H&R Magnum to .327 Federal on your own.

With the three available factory .327 Federal Magnum loads, accuracy was nothing to get excited about; groups at 50 yards averaged

These .327 Federal Magnum handloads were assembled with five different powders and three different bullets. H-110 and Lil'Gun showed the most increase in velocity between handgun and rifle loads.

about 2 inches. Before opening the chamber to .327 Federal, one inch or smaller groups with about any .32 H&R Magnum load were common, so I had expected better accuracy. This presented a challenge most handloaders welcome: an opportunity to craft ammunition that will outperform what is available from the factory.

Federal and Speer load .327 Federal cartridges with powders not available to the consumer ? WC297 and BE-88. According to Keith Anderson at the Western Powders lab, WC297 is an OEM powder from St. Marks Powder, similar to Winchester 296 or H-110. BE88 is an OEM powder from Alliant Powder for which there is no canister equivalent. After consulting the online loading data available from Hodgdon and Ramshot, and the recent article on reloading the .327 Federal Magnum by Brian Pearce in

Handloader No. 258, I selected five powders: Ramshot's True Blue and Enforcer and Hodgdon's Longshot, H-110 and Lil'Gun.

The 85-grain Hydra-Shok, 100grain JFP and 115-grain Gold Dot bullets used in factory ammunition are not available as components for handloaders, so I tried three, .312inch bullets I commonly load for the .32 H&R Magnum: the 85and 100-grain Hornady XTP and 90-grain Sierra SJHP. Redding's .32 H&R Magnum dies were used for sizing, expanding case mouths and bullet seating. All cases were primed with Federal Small Rifle Match primers and loaded to the same overall length of 1.45 inches.

Maximum loads were worked up with each powder, and regardless of the powder used, velocities in the Ruger SP 101 .327 Federal Magnum revolver were found to be, for the most part, within 100 fps of



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published load data. Given the fact that published data from Ramshot and Hodgdon was established with a 5-inch barrel, velocities were on the mark. From the 16-inch rifle barrel, the velocity increase varied a great deal depending on the powder used.

For example, with True Blue the average velocity increase was about 200 fps, but with Hodgdon's H-110 and Lil'Gun, bullets left the 16-inch barrel, on average, about 400 fps faster than they exited the 3-inch barrel of the Ruger SP 101. Interestingly, the average increase in velocity from a 3-inch pistol barrel to a 16-inch rifle barrel, for all loads tested, was 360 fps or 27 fps per inch of barrel length. This is close to the 25-fps increase or loss of velocity commonly associated with an inch of barrel length.

Because of the strong 1894 action, some may be tempted to build hotter loads for a rifle in .327 Federal. Though not advisable at all, you can slightly exceed .357 Magnum pistol loads in a Marlin

1894 without incident, because .357 Magnum load data is held to a maximum average pressure of 35,000 psi. The 1894 action will handle more pressure than that, but .327 Federal Magnum load data conforms to a maximum average pressure of 45,000 psi. Don't be brave or get greedy just because you are loading for a rifle; .327 Federal data is already as hot as it needs to be.

Ramshot's True Blue came close to duplicating Federal's Reduced Recoil 85-grain load, only falling 72 fps short. Hodgdon's Lil'Gun gave the fastest velocities with the 100grain bullet but was still 200 fps slower than the American Eagle 100-grain bullet load. On the plus side, accuracy was much better than what I could muster out of the rifle with factory ammunition with several loads grouping five shots into less than an inch at 50 yards.

While I was not able to achieve the velocity of factory ammunition, I was able to load substantially more accurate ammunition. This seems to

Table I .327 Federal Factory Ammunition (16-inch barrel)

load (grains)

velocity (fps)

group (inches)

100 American Eagle JFP 85 Federal Reduced Recoil Hydra-Shok 115 Speer Gold Dot

2,080 1,935 1,832

1.80 2.00 2.07 average: 1.95

Table II

.327 Federal Handloads (16-inch Barrel)

bullet (grains)

powder

charge (grains)

velocity (fps)

accuracy (inches)

85 Hornady XTP

Enforcer

11.5

True Blue

8.7

Longshot

7.2

90 Sierra SJHP

Enforcer

12.0

Longshot

7.3

H-110

14.0

Lil'Gun

14.2

100 Hornady XTP

Lil'Gun

13.2

True Blue

7.7

H-110

13.2

1,515

2.03

1,863

0.75

1,705

1.37

1,706

0.79

1,705

1.26

1,922

1.29

1,880

1.07

1,850

1.67

1,638

1.20

1,756

1.20

average: 1.26

Notes: All shooting was conducted with a 16-inch barreled Marlin 1894 from a Caldwell Lead Sled Plus at 50 yards using an Aimpoint Micro T1, non-magnifying red dot sight. Reported accuracy is the average of three, five-shot groups. Velocity represents the average of five shots fired over a Shooting Chrony 15 feet from the muzzle. Temperature at time of testing was 76 degrees Fahrenheit.

Be Alert ? Publisher cannot accept responsibility for errors in published load data.

Converting a Marlin 1894 .32 H&R Magnum to .327 Federal Magnum is a simple operation. Standard .32 H&R Magnum dies will work just fine for loading the .327 Federal Magnum.

be more and more common all the time with just about any of the recently introduced cartridges that are fueled with powders handloaders cannot acquire.

Right now rifle options for the .327 Federal Magnum are limited. Barrels are available for a Thompson/Center Contender, and obviously custom options exist for single-shot break-open or fallingblock actions. The conversion of a Marlin 1894 in .32 H&R Magnum to .327 Federal Magnum is simple, but these rifles are no longer manufactured. Regardless, these loads illustrate what you can expect, velocity wise, with a .327 Federal Magnum rifle. Adjusting the velocities I achieved by 27 fps per inch of barrel should provide a good estimate of what to expect from a project rifle.

Some folks have queried why I would want a rifle in .327 Federal Magnum. I'm at a loss to understand why anyone would ask such a question and too busy handloading for it to respond.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Hodgdon

Ramshot

Hornady

Sierra

Federal

Brockman's Custom Guns

4D Reamer Rentals

432 E. Idaho St. Ste. C420

Kalispell, MT 59901

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