Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns ,32 H&R Mag vs ,327 Federal Mag

Bought a Ruger SP101 .327 Fed for wife to use for home defense some years ago. Part of the rationale was that while .327 Fed loads might be too much for her, downloaded .327 Fed Mag or factory .32 H&R Mag or .32 S&W Long loads could be used instead.

Turns out even the "reduced recoil" the .327 Fed Mag loads were still too much for my wife. Didn't have dies ($99 !!!) for the .327 Federal Mag so I bought some .32 H&R Mag loads instead. Curious about the difference in performance and recoil, I fired one of each into a bucket with about 8" of sand in it.

The difference in recoil (85g @1020fps vs 1400fps per factory specs) was pretty significant, as expected. Purchased the .327 Federal dies along with 85g and 100g XTP bullets. Am guessing I'll end up with a defensive load my wife is comfortable with using the 100g at around 1000-1100fps.

Here's what the two bullets fired into sand looked like:

.32 H&R on left, .327 Fed Mag on right

Have your wife do a lot of practicing with the 32 magnum loads, that will get her confidence up. Keep the gun loaded with 327 loads in case she ever needs to use it on a bad guy, do you think she will ever know the difference? She probably won't even hear it go off!
I did that with my 15 yr old daughter when she drew her first elk tag. She shot all summer with reduced cast bullets in her 308, then I loaded & zeroed it with 150 gr Hornady's & she shot a 5X5 bull elk, one shot & didn't know for several years it was a different load.

Dick

The recoil from the .327 is just too much for her. She is a leukemia survivor with low muscle strength and brittle bones. The H&R level loads should do fine at defensive distances.

From what I recall, the 85 JHP in the .32 H&R supposedly punches above its weight as a home defense cartridge. I'd seriously consider just using that rather than downloading the .327. In addition, it avoids the factory vs. handload issue if the worst ever occurs and she actually needs to use it.

What "issue"?

"Ladies&gentlemen of the jury regular ammo wasn't enough No! She shot my poor downtrodden client with Megadeath nuclear black talon rip'em guts out Ammonutioyn!" That issue. I'd just use the h&r magnums.

Show a case where this has ever been an issue

I've heard it repeated a lot on the internet and have heard it at the gun counters, does that count? LOL...... I think Massad Ayoob wrote about it once and now a lot of the non-handloading shooters are regurgitating the point.

Don't think it has ever been an issue in a court case, just on the internet. Just have her use what she can handle, that's the best you can expect.

Dick

Random ?: are the downloaded feds still loud as hell?

Correct

I have an SP101 in .32 H&R and the recoil is quite light - enough so that my wife can shoot it comfortably even with her arthritis... That's a neat little round - and IMHO can be quite effective as a self-defense or home defensive firearm.. The only .327Fed gun I have is a Freedom Arms M97.. The added weight of the FA model helps defray the added recoil of the 327Fed and, in that platform, is really easy to control..

I apologize for further derailing the OP's thread, but...

Lawyers can (and do) try to make an issue out of anything that they think will help their case. But, just because it's been raised as an issue, it doesn't follow that the issue has legs. That said, there is no realistic argument that your legal jeopardy increases due to your use of handloads in self defense.

I once discussed the issue with other judges, the elected sheriff, the elected prosecutor, and a couple defense attorneys, and we all reached the same conclusion: It just doesn't matter. A shooter's righteousness (or criminality) will be determined on other, more significant issues, long before anybody raises the fact that the killing round was handloaded by the shooter.

If anything, there is a stronger argument against commercial ammo being used! After all, Federal, Remington, Hornady, or Whoever doesn't start mass producing a self defense round until they've done serious testing--a TON of serious testing. When they finally decide that they've created the ultimate projectile and are pushing it at the perfect speed, they offer it to America, proudly proclaiming that they have invented the perfect, purpose-built man-stopper! If you want to do maximum damage to the human body, use this round!

Whereas the guy who handloads probably uses the bullet he does, because he "heard they were good" and got a discount if he bought 1000 or more. He uses the powder he does, because it's what he uses for some other gun, and he didn't have to make a special trip to the store. As for speed, he worked up to max book but really can't say why. And, how does it perform? He has no idea; he only shot them at the range to make sure they'd group acceptably and run in his gun; he has no idea what they do against human tissue.

So who has the blacker heart when they walk out the door with their gun--Commercial Ammo Man or Handloader Guy? Commercial Ammo Man is carrying the perfect ammunition for killing, and Handloader Guy is carrying something he put together in his shop.

If you're sitting at the defendant's table in a courtroom, it wasn't your handload that got you there.

Glad that you weighed in. My point exactly handloads are a non issue, yet keeps being regurgitated on the internet

Perfectly said. I've also done some expert witness in regard to shootings. The ammunition never came up. Neither did the firearm. Ever. It was simply a matter of whether or not the shooting was justified. Simply being oxymoron here, as the whole legal case happened to determined this one question.

I wouldn’t base my opinion on how well a bullet will expand solely on results from shooting into sand either. IME the 85gr XTP in the Federal factory 32 H&R load expands well on critters. I am using a 6” barrel so may be working with a little more velocity, but probably not a whole lot.

Water jugs are my favorite test medium and I have around 100 waiting for a warm day at the range. The sand was an expedient, no mess alternative I could use in my garage and the results were entirely as expected.

Call it a fun test while the wife was away.

Anytime is a good time to shoot something! My data may be different too, the 85gr loaf I was using was original Red box Federal from the early 90’s. The load or the bullet or both could have been changed in the interim but they definitely expanded on porcupines, armadillos, and turkeys.

Excellent post, as usual sir... Kudos..

Got my .327 Federal dies, some Starline brass and 100g Hornady XTP bullets. Loaded one up with 4.6g Titegroup over a CCI 500 primer and fired it into sand.

Recoil was, as expected, stiffer than the .32 H&R 85g but still significantly lighter than the Federal 85g or 100g loads. Still gentle enough for my wife to use so I loaded up 49 more.

Here are the three bullets I've recovered from sand. Self explanatory.