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Brad Miller

Reloading: Sierra V-Crown Redefines Hollow Point Bullets

Sierra V-Crown used in SIG Sauer's ammunition.

How do the new Sierra V-Crown bullets stack up to the bullet maker's traditional jacketed hollow points?

Sierra V-Crown Bullets Snapshot

  • Loaded into SIG Sauer factory ammo, the V-Crown is also available as a component
  • Sierra V-Crown bullets feature a stacked hollow point design with another hollow cavity
  • Available in many weights, the V-Crown proved just as accurate as other Sierra JHPs

SIG Sauer introduced its own line of premium ammunition, named Elite Performance, a little while back. The line includes FMJ and JHP bullets for most common handgun calibers, and a Match load for 300 BLK (300 AAC Blackout) rifles. (Editor's Note: Since the time of this article's publication, SIG Sauer has expanded its ammunition line with several other rifle calibers, and it has also added to its pistol ammo options as well.)

The hollow point handgun bullets are named V-Crown, and are offered in most common calibers: .380 Auto, .38 Special, 9mm Luger, .357 SIG, .357 Magnum, .38 Super +P, .40 S&W, 10mm Auto, .44 Special, .44 Magnum, .45 Auto and .45 Colt. Some calibers offer several bullet weights: The 9mm Luger has 115-, 124- and 147-grain bullets; the .40 S&W has 165- and 180-grain bullets; and the .45 Auto has 185-, 200- and 230-grain bullets.

V-Crown ammunition is described thus: “The ultimate defense round delivers exceptional on-target energy, maximum weight retention, and optimal expansion at all effective distances.” The bullets have a stacked hollow point design with an additional hollow cavity. A unique toothed cannelure acts to ensure weight retention and excellent expansion.

V-Crown bullets are made by Sierra for SIG’s defensive ammo, and some versions for common semi-automatic pistol cartridges have now been made available for handloaders. These include 90-, 124- and 125-grain .355-inch bullets; a 165-grain .400-inch bullet; and a 200-grain .4515-inch bullet. The 90-grain .355-inch bullet lacks the cannelure.

The different weights of Sierra V-Crown bullets.

V-Crown bullets are a new design, and most of them have a distinctly different shape than Sierra’s traditional line of JHP bullets. Traditional Sierra JHP bullets have a truncated cone nose shape, whereas most of the V-Crown bullets have a curved nose. The exception is the 90-grain .355-inch bullet, which retains the conical nose shape.

The hollow point cavity of the Sierra V-Crown is also distinctly different than the company’s usual JHP. The traditional Sierra JHP bullets have a wide and deep hollow cavity with a flat bottom, rather like an ashtray. The V-Crown hollow cavity has sloped sides that look like they were formed with an inverted cone. The cavity leads to a small hole at the center penetrating deeper into the lead core.

The 124- and 125-grain bullets differ in an interesting way. The lighter 124-grain bullet is longer than its heavier 125-grain sibling. The nose shapes are different. The 124-grain bullet has a longer, more gradually tapered nose that would be typical of a 9mm Luger bullet. The 125-grain bullet has a shorter nose that is likely designed with the .357 SIG in mind, and it looks like the same bullet loaded in my sample of the company’s .357 SIG ammunition. SIG also loads a 125-grain bullet in its .38 Special, .38 Super and .357 Magnum ammunition.

Sierra V-Crown compared to Sierra's traditional jacketed hollow points.

I checked my box of SIG V-Crown .38 Super ammunition to see if it was the same 125-grain bullet as the .357 SIG. However, the .38 Super’s bullet does not look like the SIG bullet. Instead, it looked like the 9mm bullet with a longer nose. I pulled the .38 Super bullet, and it weighed 124 grains, not 125 grains like it says on the box. Oh well, close enough.

The nose of some V-Crown bullets appears to be a little longer than Sierra’s usual JHP bullet, which means the V-Crown can be seated to a slightly longer overall length. The benefit of a longer nose means more options for overall length. A short nose often means a short cartridge overall length for some calibers because the bullet will contact the rifling if loaded near the cartridge’s maximum overall length, so the bullet must be seated deeper to allow it to chamber. Some guns are finicky when feeding short-loaded bullets, so the longer nose of some V-Crown bullets means they can be loaded longer which can improve feeding reliability.

The length and weight of V-Crown bullets were compared to the lengths of other Sierra bullets. Sierra does not make a 200-grain .45-caliber JHP at the present. The company’s current 200-grain bullet is a jacketed flat point (JFP).

Top view of Sierra's Sierra V-Crown and traditional jacketed hollow points.

Sierra’s bullets have an excellent reputation for accuracy, and I wondered how this new design compared accuracy-wise with older designs. I compared them, where possible, with the same weight Sierra JHP bullets. For the 200-grain .45-caliber bullets, I used Sierra’s 200-grain JFP.

I loaded them up and fired a 10-round group at 25 yards with the pistol mounted in a Ransom Rest. Velocity was measured with a Shooting Chrony chronograph at about 10 feet from the muzzle.

The test guns were a Para Ordnance P14-45 for .45 Automatic, a Para Ordnance high-capacity frame with a Caspian slide and Ed Brown 5-inch barrel for .40 S&W, a Colt Government Model .38 Super and a Glock 19C for 9mm Luger. The V-Crown 90-grain bullets are intended for a .380-caliber pistol, but I did not have one suitable for these tests, so I tested them in the 9mm Glock.

None of these pistols would be considered fully “accurized.” The .40 S&W pistol has a custom top end, but the slide and frame fit was not tightened, and the Ed Brown barrel was a “drop-in” type. The Colt .38 Super had the bushing replaced because the factory bushing was a little loose. The Para Ordnance P14-45, and the Glock 19C are stock guns.

Accuracy results of Sierra V-Crown.

The group sizes with the 9mm and .40 S&W V-Crown bullets were a little smaller than their JHP counterparts. The .38 Super loads with both V-Crown bullets were slightly larger than the group with the standard JHP. The two Sierra 200-grain .45 Automatic loads produced the same group size. They were not the smallest groups, but this is about the best that this particular barrel/gun can shoot.

These new V-Crown bullets appear to have the same accuracy potential as Sierra’s standard line of bullets, which is a high bar to meet.

I asked Sierra if the company planned on making the other calibers and weights of V-Crown bullets available to reloaders in the future. They replied that they might introduce some this year. V-Crown bullets cost just a little more than Sierra’s standard JHP bullets.

It’s nice to have premium bullets available as a component. Handloaders can now duplicate SIG factory ammunition, or load the same bullet to suit their needs. V-Crown accuracy was on par with the other Sierra bullets in my pistols, so they are certainly worth trying in yours to see how they perform.

Editor's Note: This article is from the July 2016 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.

How Greatly Does A Ported Barrel Reduce Recoil?

ported barrel reducing recoil - 1Ports have been around for some time now, but they have become increasingly popular as a factory-installed option. Just how effective is a ported barrel at reducing recoil and muzzle rise, though?

Gun makers are always changing their product lines to make improvements and, sometimes, to offer something cool that will generate new interest. New colors and new options make the product appeal to a wider range of buyers. Some changes are aesthetic, some are practical, but any excuse for a new gun is a good excuse!

One option becoming more popular in recent years is a ported barrel to reduce felt recoil and muzzle rise, and it is offered on some models by several manufacturers, including Smith and Wesson, Springfield Armory, Glock and Taurus. Ports are practical because they take the bite out of recoil, but they have a coolness factor as well.

They look exotic, and that is part of their appeal. There’s nothing wrong with that.

How They Work
Ports are not new. Magnaport has been porting barrels for over 40 years. But they have become more popular recently, and some barrel makers now offer extended barrels with ports as an aftermarket option (e.g. EFK Fire Dragon, Bar-Sto, Storm Lake, Lone Wolf).

Ports work by venting gas that normally contributes to recoil. When the gas produced by the burning gunpowder blasts forward, it produces an equal counterforce to the rear, adding to the recoil force produced by the bullet’s weight and velocity.

This happens via Newton’s Third Law of Motion — for every action, there is an opposite and equal reaction. Redirecting gas upwards reduces felt recoil and muzzle rise.

How effective are barrel ports at reducing recoil and muzzle rise? This was tested in a Glock 19C ported 9mm pistol.  

The 19C barrel has two small, elongated ports measuring 0.400 inch long and 0.084 inch wide in a “V” configuration that straddle the centerline. Their center is about 1.375 inches from the end of the muzzle.    

It’s obvious the ports reduce felt recoil and muzzle rise when fired alongside the non-ported barrel. The question is: How much? The muzzle rise with the ported barrel was compared to the muzzle rise with a standard, non-ported Glock 19 barrel in the same gun.

It’s difficult to quantify differences in recoil and muzzle rise while shooting by hand. Guesstimating differences this way is very subjective, and different people will have different estimates. One person might claim a 10 percent difference while another guesses a 40 percent difference with the same guns.

ported barrel for reducing recoil - 2Testing Effectiveness
Fortunately, there is a better way. Muzzle rise was measured with a Ransom Rest, where the distance the gun moves indicates relative recoil.

The rocker arm holding the gun pivots upward when the gun is fired, just like when it’s handheld. Since the ports vent the gas upward, the reciprocal downward force reduces how far the gun pivots. Thus, the Ransom Rest is an objective method to quantitatively measure muzzle rise.

Three factory loads were tested: Federal 115-grain FMJ (WM51991), Winchester NATO 124-grain FMJ (RA9124N), Winchester 147-grain WinClean BEB (WC93). A handload was also prepared with a 124-grain Remington JHP loaded with two different charge weights of Winchester 231.

Ten rounds of each load were fired in each barrel. Velocity was measured with a Shooting Chrony chronograph at about 10 feet.

The ported barrel produced an average of 31 percent less muzzle rise than the non-ported barrel with factory ammunition. The 115-grain Federal load produced the greatest reduction at 32 percent, and the 124- and 147-grain Winchester loads both had a 30 percent reduction in muzzle rise.

Barrel ports vent gas while the bullet is still in the barrel. This reduces the pressure accelerating the bullet, so velocity drops a little. The Glock manual indicates a 30 fps loss with the model 19C (1,120 fps) compared to the model 19 (1,150 fps) (ammunition not specified).

Ideally, one would want to know the velocity in the same barrel before and after ports are cut. That was not practical for this test.

Determining The Source
The caveat with comparing two barrels is that they can produce different velocities with the same ammunition even if they are identical — if neither had ports. As such, this analysis compares the velocity difference between these two specific barrels, with the presumption that the velocity difference observed is not unreasonable of what one might observe after porting the same barrel.

Ported barrels - reducing recoil - chart 1The ported barrel produced less velocity than the non-ported barrel. The 115-grain load was 78 fps slower, the 124- and 147-grain loads were 55 fps and 53 fps slower, respectively.

Lower velocity reduces recoil force and gun movement in the Ransom Rest. Therefore, some reduction in Ransom Rest movement is due to lower velocity in the ported barrel.

How much reduced muzzle rise is due to the lower velocity and how much is from the gas? This was calculated by doing a little math with the handload data.

The handload was used to analyze Ransom Rest movement at different velocities. Using two charge weights permits the use of linear regression to calculate how much of the difference in muzzle rise was the velocity difference and how much was the gas vented through the ports.

ported barrel - reducing recoil - chart 2This is determined by calculating the amount of Ransom Rest movement the standard barrel would have if it produced the same velocity as the ported barrel. The difference in movement between the two barrels when they produce the same velocity is due to the force of the gas vented by the ports.

The handload produced 55 fps less velocity and 33 percent less muzzle rise in the ported barrel, similar to the factory ammunition. The math showed that the ports account for 73 percent of the difference in muzzle rise, while velocity accounted for 27 percent.

Thus, nearly three-fourths of the difference in muzzle rise is due to the gas vented by the ports. Therefore, the ports themselves produced a 24 percent reduction in muzzle rise (33 percent x 0.73 = 24 percent).

Summary
The Glock 19C’s ported barrel produced at least 30 percent less muzzle rise than the standard barrel. That’s impressive performance for such small ports. Part of this is from the reduced velocity, but the greatest effect is from the vented gas force. How effectively ports work depends on their number, size and location.

Polymer Composite Bullet Accuracy Put to the Test

Polymer Composite Bullet

Innovative people in the shooting industry are always coming up with something new to explore. New guns, new cartridges, new bullets. One of the more interesting new developments is the polymer composite bullet offered by Polycase Inceptor and Ruger ammunition.

Polymer is making its way into all aspects of the shooting sport, from polymer frames to polymer coatings on bullets. Now polymer is a major component of the bullet itself. Polycase bullets are made from a mixture of powdered copper and polymer and are produced via injection molding.

Polymer Composite Bullet

The bullets come in two flavors, solid or fluted. The solid bullets are either a round nose RNP (Round Nose Precision) or flat nose TNP (Truncated Nose Precision) configuration. The unique ARX (Advanced Rotational Extreme) bullet has three flutes in the nose that redirect hydraulic forces laterally.

As of this writing, Polycase bullets are available in .380 Auto, 9mm Luger, .38 Spl, .357 Magnum, .40 S&W, .45 Auto and .45 Colt ammunition for handguns. Loads for .458 SOCOM are made by SBR Ammunition, and .50 Beowulf is made by Alexander Arms. Polycase loads both the round nose and ARX bullets for its handgun calibers, and the ARX is used for the rifle rounds. Ruger only loads the ARX bullets.

The solids have the same profile as conventional bullets with a round or flat nose and are suitable for practice and training. The ARX bullet’s uniquely shaped fluted nose is designed to harness hydraulic force in a fluid medium to transfer kinetic energy to the target, and it is ideal for self-defense.

The ARX bullets do not expand. They rely on the flutes, combined with the bullet’s rotation, to produce hydrostatic shock to create a large temporary wound cavity during penetration. This differs from conventional hollowpoint bullets that rely on expansion. The manufacturer claims that ARX bullets create “temporary (wound) cavities that match or exceed any bullet in the same caliber.” The ARX bullets have significant penetration in gelatin but generally stop by 16 inches, thereby reducing the chance of over-penetration.

The polymer bullets weigh roughly 70 percent of that of conventional lead bullets. This means they can be driven to higher velocities, which aids in producing the hydrostatic effects. Additional benefits of the polymer bullets include less recoil, less bullet drop and reduced ricochet from steel targets.

The unconventional nature of these bullets raises questions about how well they shoot. They are, after all, very different from anything we usually put down our bore. Do they shoot straight? Accuracy was tested with 9mm, .40 S&W and .45 Auto ammunition fired from guns mounted in a Ransom Rest.

The 9mm ammunition was Inceptor 84-grain RNP and Ruger +P 80-grain ARX. The .40 S&W ammunition was Inceptor 114-grain TNP and 107-grain ARX. The .45 Auto ammunition was Inceptor 130-grain RNP and Ruger 118-grain ARX.

Polymer Composite Bullet

I’ve seen different bullet weights for some of these calibers. For example, I’ve found three different advertised weights for the .40 S&W ARX bullets. Polycase shows an 88-grain bullet on their website, while my Polycase ammunition has a 107-grain bullet. Cheaper Than Dirt lists both 97- and 107-grain bullets in Polycase Inceptor ammo. The Ruger website shows a 97-grain bullet, but the Cheaper Than Dirt website shows Ruger ammunition with a 107-grain bullet.

One bullet of each type was pulled and weighed. Most were close to the advertised weight. The oddball was the .40 S&W TNP bullet that was 11 grains light.

Accuracy was tested at 25 yards. Ten shots were fired into a single group. Velocity was recorded with a Shooting Chrony chronograph at about 10 feet. The test guns were a Glock G19, a Para Ordnance .40 Smith & Wesson pistol with a 5-inch Ed Brown barrel and a Caspian 1911 .45 Automatic pistol with a 5-inch Kart barrel.

Accuracy of 10-shot groups ranged from around 2 inches to a little over 4 inches. My experience with these guns is that these are typical group sizes that I see with factory ammunition. Some ammo shoots worse than what I found with these copper/polymer bullets, and some shoots better. That’s good news. Just because they’re different it doesn’t mean that they don’t behave like our customary fare.

The ARX rounds produced smaller groups than the RNP/TNP bullets in all three guns. I wouldn’t exactly call the ARX round match-grade ammunition, but it is more than sufficient for self-defense purposes. It does show that injection-molded bullets can shoot as accurately as traditional jacketed or lead bullets.

I noticed a distinct smell when these rounds were fired. It was a stronger smell than what I’ve experienced with polymer-coated lead bullets, which have their own distinct odor. This is not really a downside to these bullets, just something to keep in mind when you fire them for the first time.

Polymer Composite Bullet

The price of the ARX ammunition is in the same range as most hollowpoint ammunition, and is less than some brands, so you won’t have to sell the farm to give it a try. And I noticed that one retailer has 50-round boxes of 9mm RNP ammunition for just $12.98. That’s the same price as regular jacketed ammunition.

The fluted ARX bullet is similar to the star-nosed Lehigh Defense Xtreme Penetrator and Xtreme Defense bullets. All of these bullet designs offer something different than conventional expanding hollowpoint bullets. They produce large wound channels through hydraulic force without expansion. This means they won’t fail to perform as designed from being plugged up like a hollowpoint can.

If you want to try something different, this new copper/polymer ammunition should be high on your list.

Polymer Composite Bullet

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the December 2016 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.

Review: Ruger LCR in .327 Federal Magnum

Ruger LCR .327 Federal Magnum _FAh, the belly gun, the snubnose (short-barreled) revolver. Belly guns have a long history and can be roughly defined as any revolver with a short barrel typically intended for concealed carry. I usually associate the name as coming from carrying the gun tucked into the waistband against the belly for quick and easy access. A revolver does this very well because the gun can be positioned for the belt to press against the narrow region between the cylinder and the grip acting as a “holster” to keep the gun in place. Of course, an inside-the-waistband holster will do that and is a much safer method for carrying these guns so that the trigger is not exposed to whatever might snag it.

ruger-lcr-2I’m old enough that, when I worked in law enforcement, revolvers were the only game in town. I carried a Colt Detective Special or J-Frame Smith & Wesson in .38 Special as my back-up gun and off duty gun. In later, non-law enforcement years, I often carried a Colt Magnum Carry or Smith & Wesson 340PD as my concealed carry gun. These are chambered in .357 Magnum. I like the power of the magnum cartridge because it maximizes performance from these short-barreled guns. A 2-inch barreled .357 Magnum will launch 125-grain bullets at 1,250 feet per second (fps), which is in the power range of a 9mm+P from a 4-inch barrel.

Revolvers have given up considerable ground over the years to the explosion of small, compact semi-automatic pistols when it comes to carry guns. Semi-automatic pistols are flatter and often hold a round or two more than a revolver. But revolvers hold the edge on reliability. They are less likely to jam than a semi-automatic pistol. And some folks simply prefer revolvers.

Find Out More About Ruger Firearms

I’ve carried revolvers and semi-automatics, and I like them both. They both have positive points. I must confess a certain love for belly guns, due in part to their historic/romantic allure as well as their practical nature. They are easily concealed and easily accessed. They are excellent point-and-shoot guns because they don’t have a safety to fiddle with.

Ruger LCR 327 FED 1
The LCR in .327 Federal Magnum has a sturdy stainless steel frame.

The most recent belly gun that caught my eye is the Ruger Lightweight Compact Revolver (LCR). It is a “modern” design because part of the frame is made from polymer that attaches to a metal frame.
The monolithic frames of LCRs chambered in .327 Federal Magnum, 9mm Luger and .357 Magnum are made of stainless steel, whereas frames of guns chambered in .22 LR, .22 Magnum and .38 Special are made from 700 series aluminum. This gun is chambered for .327 Federal Magnum  (more about the cartridge later).

ruger-lcr-4LCR cylinders are made from high-strength stainless steel and are extensively fluted to reduce their profile and weight. Ruger’s website states the cylinders are refinished with a durable, black Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD). But Ruger’s technical support told me, “We actually use a carbon based Diamond-Like-Coating (DLC), which is similar to PVD but has some subtle differences in application and mechanics. The hardness is around 3,000 Vickers, which is roughly equivalent to a high 80s HRC.”

For comparison, hard chrome plating, recognized as a very hard coating for guns, runs about 65-69 HRC. That means the DLC is very durable, indeed. The stainless steel frames get the same coating. The aluminum frames are finished with a synergistic hard-coat.

The barrel is a two-piece affair. The monolithic frame serves as a sleeve for the 1.87-inch stainless steel barrel insert.

The LCR is double-action-only with no exposed hammer to snag on clothing during presentation (Ruger’s LCRx models have an exposed hammer for optional single-action firing). The hammer and trigger are housed within the polymer portion and feature a friction-reducing cam that gives the gun a surprisingly light and smooth, non-stacking trigger pull on a factory gun. You have to feel it to appreciate it.

Ruger LCR 327 3
The LCR in .327 Federal features a short 1.87-inch barrel and a pinned ramp sight with a white stripe.

I could not get a reliable measurement of the trigger pull weight because my RCBS trigger pull scale has a maximum weight of 8 pounds, but if the LCR’s trigger pull is much more than that, it has to be the lightest feeling 8-plus-pound trigger I’ve ever felt on a factory revolver.

The LCR has a transfer bar safety system to ensure that the hammer blow can only transfer to the firing pin when the trigger is pulled all the way to the rear. The ramped and serrated front sight sports a highly visible long white stripe. It is pinned and replaceable. The rear sight is a square notch cut into the frame. The sight radius is 3.55 inches.

ruger-lcr-3The gun features a Hogue Tamer rubber grip that incorporates a very soft insert at the web of the hand to take the bite out of recoil. The cylinder release button (crane latch) has a heavy spring and requires some force to unlatch the cylinder. This is good for a concealed carry revolver because it is less likely to be accidentally activated from bumping something during concealment or when drawn.

One of the most appealing things about this gun is that it is chambered in .327 Federal Magnum. This cartridge was introduced in 2008 in a Ruger SP101 with a 3.1-inch barrel. Charter Arms, Taurus, Smith & Wesson, Freedom Arms and U.S. Fire Arms (now defunct) also chambered revolvers in this cartridge. Only Ruger and Freedom Arms catalog this caliber at present. Ruger currently has five pistols chambered for this round: three Single Seven models of 4.62-, 5.5- and 7.5-inch barrel lengths, an SP101 with a 4.2-inch barrel, and the LCR. The LCR version was introduced in 2015.

In addition to being a very powerful cartridge, the .327 Federal Magnum has the advantage of increasing the gun’s capacity. The LCR holds six rounds of .327 Federal Magnum, but only five rounds of .38/.357 caliber ammunition. This is because, obviously, of the smaller diameter of the .32-caliber round.

327-federal-1For folks not familiar with the .327 Federal Magnum, don’t be fooled by its small caliber. It packs a punch. Nominal ballistics are a 100-grain bullet at 1,500 fps producing 500 ft.-lbs. of muzzle energy from a 4-inch barrel, which approaches the .357 Magnum’s prototypical performance of a 125-grain bullet at 1,450 fps producing 583 ft.-lbs. of muzzle energy from an equal barrel length. Thus, it delivers a super-charged bullet on target nearly on par with the .357 Magnum, a round recognized as one of the most effective self-defense cartridges available. The .327 Federal Magnum also produces less recoil than the .357 Magnum, which makes for faster follow-up shots. The .327 Federal Magnum achieves its impressive performance from a very high SAAMI maximum average pressure limit of 45,000 psi, which is considerably higher than the .357 Magnum’s pressure limit of 35,000 psi.

The .327 Federal Magnum is a longer, higher-pressure version of the .32 H&R (Harrington and Richardson) Magnum. The .32 H&R Magnum is a longer, higher-pressure version of the .32 Smith and Wesson Long, which is itself a longer version of the .32 Smith and Wesson. The case diameters are virtually the same for all four of these cartridges, which means that a revolver chambered for the .327 Federal Magnum can fire them all.

The semi-rimmed .32 Automatic will also fit and fire in the .327 Federal Magnum chamber, but it isn’t recommended. The .32 Automatic has a thinner rim thickness than the revolver cartridges, which means that the primer is effectively about 0.010 inches farther away from the firing pin than the revolver rounds. This means that some .32 Automatic rounds could misfire due to less robust firing pin strikes. This extra distance also translates into excessive headspace, which can affect accuracy.

Another reason to avoid shooting the .32 Automatic in these guns is because its semi-rim is not as wide as the revolver cartridge rim and might not be engaged by the ejector. I fired some .32 Automatic rounds from the LCR, and when I pressed the ejector rod, the ejector completely missed the rims. I had to push the cases out one-by-one with a pencil. Accuracy with this round was horrible. I stopped shooting them after a few rounds. The pattern was so spread out that I was afraid a stray bullet might hit my chronograph.

327-federal-2There is a nice range of bullet styles available for the .327 Federal Magnum. This includes hollow point, soft point and cast lead bullets. Ammunition manufacturers include Federal, Speer, Buffalo Bore, DoubleTap, Reed’s Ammunition and Jamison Ammunition. If you include the other calibers this gun will fire, the types of bullets available and the list of manufacturers increases significantly.

Accuracy was tested with a six-shot group at 7 yards, fired from sandbags. Velocity was recorded with a Shooting Chrony chronograph at about 10 feet, and is the average of six shots. In addition to .327 Federal Magnum ammunition, .32 H&R Magnum, .32 Smith and Wesson Long and .32 Smith and Wesson ammunition was tested.

Accuracy with this small revolver was excellent. Most of the six-shot groups hovered around the 2-inch range. The smallest group was 1.53 inches and the largest group was 2.97 inches. That’s quite good for a gun with such a short sight radius. I used a six o’clock hold, and the hits were level with the sights and about 1 inch to the right. This little gun puts the rounds on target!

One concern with small guns is how much velocity you lose because of the short barrel. You can’t avoid the velocity reduction, that’s just physics. But the .327 Federal Magnum still produces high velocities from the LCR’s short barrel. The faster rounds produced velocities around 1,300 fps. The Federal 100-grain soft point clocked at 1,313 fps from the 1.87-inch barrel, producing 383 ft.-lbs. of muzzle energy. That’s more energy than a .45 Automatic produces with a 230-grain bullet at 850 fps (367 ft.-lbs.) from a 5-inch barrel.

ruger-lcr-7The DoubleTap load with the 115-grain cast bullet produced 1,264 fps and 408 ft.-lbs. of muzzle energy. This is awfully close to the power of a .357 Magnum when it launches a 125-grain bullet at 1,250 fps from a 2-inch barrel producing 434 ft.-lbs. of energy. Not all .327 Federal Magnum ammunition is loaded to maximum power, as the data in the table demonstrates, so shooters can select the round they feel will best suit their needs at the power/recoil level they desire.

The .32 H&R Magnum is generally comparable to the power of the .38 Special and is a viable choice when looking for a round with less recoil. They also come in a range of power levels, which includes a +P offering from Buffalo Bore. That company’s .32 H&R Magnum +P load was nearly as powerful as their .327 Federal Magnum load with the same bullet, being only 44 fps slower in the LCR.

The fact that you can shoot lower-powered rounds like the .32 H&R Magnum, .32 Smith & Wesson Long and .32 Smith & Wesson gives you so many options for different power levels. The LCR, in this chambering, is the king of versatility.

Ruger LCR 327 Federal 6
Accuracy with the Ruger LCR was perfectly acceptable at personal defense distances.

The full-powered .327 Federal Magnum rounds produce significant recoil in this lightweight gun. That’s to be expected, but the Hogue Tamer grip made it tolerable. This gun is infinitely more comfortable to shoot than my Smith & Wesson 340PD, which painfully stings my hand with full house .357 Magnum loads. The 340PD is 5.6 ounces lighter than the LCR, and the .357 Magnum produces more recoil. I wish Hogue made a Tamer grip for Smith & Wesson J-Frames!

The grip angle of the LCR fits me a little better than my J-Frame Smith & Wesson 340PD. I’ve found that the 340PD points a little high. By this I mean that the front sight of the 340PD sticks out a bit too high from the rear sight when I just point it at a target. I have to bend my wrist downward a little to properly align the front sight until it is even with the rear sight. When I point the LCR, the front sight is even with the rear sight.

I really like the Ruger LCR combined with the .327 Federal Magnum cartridge. The gun is concealable, reasonably lightweight, accurate and points naturally. It has plenty of power, and there is a broad selection of ammunition. It has less recoil than the .357 Magnum and offers an extra round capacity. It is an excellent choice for a concealed carry belly gun.

Specifications:

ruger-lcr-327-fed-specsRuger LCR
Type: Revolver, double action only
Caliber: .327 Federal Magnum
Capacity: 6 rounds
Weight: 17.0 oz.
Overall Length: 6.5 in.
Width: 1.28 in.
Height: 4.5 in.
Frame: Stainless steel, black DLC/polymer, black
Cylinder: Stainless steel, black DLC
Grip: Hogue Tamer
Front Sight: Ramped and serrated with white stripe
Rear Sight: Square notch, black
Price: $669

Editor's Note: This article is an excerpt from the Concealed Carry 2016 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.


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