Any experience with .32 S&W Long in Henry .327 Federal Magnum

[vonfilm]

I am considering a Henry .327 Steel Carbine. Many reviews have reported that the Henry will cycle .32 S&W Long just fine. I would like to hear about your experience with various cast boolits in .32 S&W Long fired in a Henry .327.

It would seem that this would make an ideal squirrel or rabbit rifle.

[megasupermagnum]

I tried some factory loads with cast bullets. They cycled fine. They did not shoot that great, but they didn't shoot that great in a revolver either.

[rockshooter]

can't speak for the .32 long but I find that my Henry doesn't like to feed 311008 when is shorter than 1.455" using .32 H&R brass- could be bullet nose shape tho.
Loren

[vonfilm]

I currently own a JM Marlin 1894 in .357 magnum. I love it with the 1-5X Leupold VX3. I have taken some small deer with it. Even using .38 Special, it seems a little large for small game like rabbits and squirrels. If the Henry .327 carbine can be accurate with .32 S&W Long handloads, it would be a useful addition.

[Geezer in NH]

Call Henry and ask them. They should know.

[Alferd Packer]

I read that the Henry 327 feeds .32 H&R ok but the .32 long maybe too short unless a longer bullet is seated further out to at least the length of the .32 H&R.
I don't know for sure, only what I read on another thread.
When I am able to get a .327 Henry, I will try it.
Henry will probaby only vouch for factory loaded .327 ammo.

[vonfilm]

Yesterday I ordered a Henry Big Boy Steel 16.5" Carbine in .327 Federal Magnum.
I became convinced that .32 S&W Long would cycle well and obtain reasonable accuracy mainly from the Youtube videos of Buffalo's Outdoors. He put a Henry carbine like this through the paces on his Youtube channel. He has a lot of great shooting content.
I am looking to check out the versatility of this carbine from small game to deer. With 10 .32 S&W Longs in the tube it should be ready for a day of squirrel and rabbit, and with .327 FedMag it should work well for closely called in predators and deer up to 125 yards. I will probably install a scope to help with my 62 year old eyes. This makes 4 lever actions for me,along with a pre AE Winchester Model 94 XTR, a JM Marlin 1894C, and a JM Marlin 1895G.

I would love to see any load/powder/boolit combinations for using .32 S&W Long in a rifle. What velocities are you getting?

[megasupermagnum]

Henry themselves say 32 s&w long will cycle without problems. You will like it. I also have the carbine, and don't shoot it enough. Every time I take it out I wonder why I don't use it more.

[Green Frog]

Well, I should have taken a pass at reading this thread! Now I'm going to have to have one of these Henry carbines or rifles in .327 Fed Mag. I've stuck to revolvers so far because I didn't see anything else that "looked right." Kiss that **** goodbye! Now I won't be at peace until there's a Big Boy to side my Ruger Blackhawk. :roll:

The only thing slowing me down (other than the $$$ of course) is the fact that the 327s aren't available (yet) in octagonal barrel models. Maybe I'll force myself to wait for their introduction. With my luck, they'll discover their "mistake" and add octagon 327s next week! :???:

Froggie

[trapper9260]

I had a handi rifle made to shoot 327mag and I am able to shoot everything else in it down to 32 S&W and 32 ACP

[megasupermagnum]

I had a handi rifle made to shoot 327mag and I am able to shoot everything else in it down to 32 S&W and 32 ACP

Well, of course you can in a single shot. The henry is a lever action. While it cycles 32 s&w long fine, I doubt it would work well with 32 acp.


The Henry big boy steel carbine is a great rifle. Mine comes in at a trim 6 pounds 8 ounces empty, decent 4 1/2 pound trigger, and was reliable out of the box. Henry customer service is second to nobody if it isn't.


There is only one negative I can think of, and that is that they can only handle a maximum cartridge OAL of 1.530". The chamber of the rifle itself is incredibly long, I've got one bullet that brings the OAL to 1.650" and is practically a wadcutter profile, and it chambers fine. The throat seems to be around .200" long, which is nice. Now I modified mine to feed cartridges up to 1.625" OAL. Unfortunately what this did was allow cartridge to jump over the top of the carrier. It only does this in certain circumstances, although works great most of the time. Because of this, I cannot recommend modifying these in the manner that I have.

If one were to deer hunt with one, you could easily single load a long cartridge, and use the shorter cartridges in the magazine. Or just load to 1.530", which can still work well.

[vonfilm]

I received my .327 Federal Magnum today. Henry certainly produces a beautiful high quality rifle. The fit and finish is excellent and it feels absolutely rock solid. The action is very smooth and I would estimate the trigger pull to be a crisp 3-4 pounds. The trigger pull is quite a bit better than my JM Marlin 1894C.

Henry's one piece scope mount is on the way along with 500 rounds of Fiochi 97 gr LRN ammo. I still need to get .32 dies.Any experience reloading Fiochi brass? If it doesn't work out, I will get some Starline brass.

Longterm goal is to work up some accurate and effective cast boolit handloads that I can use in this carbine for small game.If it works out I would expect to use .32 SWL much more than .327 FedMag. This carbine is intended to be a more effective substitute for something like a Model 39, BL22, 9422, or H001.

[megasupermagnum]

I've not found any major problems with Fiocchi, although I don't see a lot of it. It should be as good as Starline. The Lee dies work well.

[vonfilm]

My scope mount arrived from Henry yesterday;today I mounted a Leupold Vari-X 2-7 Compact scope. It is a good size for this little carbine.

The 500 rounds of Fiochi .32 SWL also arrived. The LRN boolits looked like they had a black powder coating. The boxes were labeled Cowboy ammo.

In the last two months I've acquired 3 .32's, a Beretta Model 81, a Kel-Tec P32, and this Henry .327.

[vonfilm]

Yesterday I was able to shoot my Henry .327 carbine for the first time. I was pleased that it cycled both .327 Fed Mag and .32 S&W Long perfectly if I did my part.

The .327 Federal American Eagle 100 grain JSP grouped about .75" at 25 yards and about 1.25" at 50 yards.

The .32 S&W Long Fiocchi 97 grain RNL Cowboy grouped about 1" at 25 yards and about 2.5" at 50 yards. I was kind of disappointed in the 50 yard grouping and I am wondering what direction to go in handloading to improve this. I also tried these in my Taurus M327 2" revolver and they worked fine. Should I go for more velocity, heavier boolit, fast powder, slow powder. I will probably go for ready made cast boolit at first. Any suggestions?
I am leaning toward a 115 grain RNFP 32-20 boolit from Rimrock Bullets.

[megasupermagnum]

I never did try loading 32 S&W long brass, so take this with a grain of salt. Mine loves 327 federal, so I load everything in 327 federal brass. There's no reason you can't load light 327 federal loads.

[vonfilm]

I never did try loading 32 S&W long brass, so take this with a grain of salt. Mine loves 327 federal, so I load everything in 327 federal brass. There's no reason you can't load light 327 federal loads.

What kind of light loads have you tried with .327 brass?

[megasupermagnum]

My favorite so far was 3 grains 700x. Most any target powder will work fine. Lots of people like the Lee 90gr SWC, and that would be a good place to start. By pure luck, my 311-93-1r drops at .314", and that is a good choice too. I like to seat such that the front driving band is level with the top of the brass, and then I only apply enough crimp to close the flare.