Hondo44
Hawkeye
Chev. William said:Hondo44,
3. "Have you considered the 327 Fed Mag? A little lengthening of the 32 H&R/ S&W family cyl chambers will work for it as well."
The .32 H&R cylinder chambers are about 1.4" in length over all, and After rework to fit re-cut replacement .22-Mag cylinders (re-cut to .32 Calibers), it will actually be shorter due to the need to set the barrel back slightly to get the forcing Cone to fit the re-cut cylinders. Both types of cylinder have about the SAME outside Chamber Length, with the .22 ones back close to the Recoil face with Rebated Rims and the .32 one having Rims exposed so the chamber is further 'forward' overall.
4. "Factory loaded .327 Mag cartridges are only ~.003" longer than the factory 32 H&R chambers/cyl. Originally I thought I'd have to run the factory loads thru my seating die and seat the bullets a couple of .001" deeper in the case, but didn't have to. Believe it or not they function perfectly by taking advantage of the barrel/cylinder gap spacing. I know it might be counterintuitive but as they say, truth can be stranger than fiction."
OAL length of the .32 H&R is lasted at 1.350". .22 Mag. Cyl. is 1.405" over chamber. OAL Length of .327 Fed. Mag. listed at 1.475" so I doubt Factory Loads would fit inside the envelope of the converted Frame/Cylinder/Barrel combination.
Best Regards,
Chev. William
Chev. William,
You misunderstand, you cannot rechamber 22 cyls for the 327. You have to start with 32 H&R cyls which are longer than 22 cyls to begin with, and also the chambers are not recessed, so there's no 'cleanup' of the rear face needed.. That's why factory 327s will work in it.
I find 32 H&R cyls on ebay, gunbroker and from custom pistol smiths.
I've done at least a dozen of these already over the last 6 years and every one of them works with factory 327 cartridges, just by deepening the chambers .130".
If your host gun is a 32 H&R, there's no adjustment needed to the barrel/cyl gap. If you start with a 22 host gun, of course the barrel will be changed and the gap is just set to the factory 32 H&R cyl length.