Back in 2020, Lipsey’s introduced an exclusive version of the Ruger SP101 in .357 Magnum. It had a 3-inch barrel, with a half-lug covering the ejector rod, a Patridge-type post front sight with a gold bead, a fully adjustable rear sight and a satin blue finish. Having a predilection for revolvers, I requested a test gun from Lipsey’s. I told them I thought this revolver would be just right chambered in .327 Federal Magnum—it would have all the features of the .357 Magnum version but would have a six-shot cylinder instead of five.
Last August, I received an email that the gun I’d hoped for was finally a reality. The new Lipsey’s Ruger SP101 comes packed in a black plastic carrying case. The handgun itself was a duplicate of the .357 model, except it was stamped “.327 Fed. Mag.” and had that six-round cylinder. Fit and finish seemed up to Ruger specifications and to me the gun looks very proportional.
The muzzle of the 3-inch barrel is crowned and the front of the barrel is rounded for ease in holstering. The rear sight is fully adjustable. The gold-bead front sight is mounted to the barrel in a dovetail. The rear of the sight below the gold bead is serrated. The ejector rod is long enough to provide good case extraction. The gun’s cylinder has deep flutes and the extractor star is stainless steel, as are the hammer, trigger and internal action parts. Its single-action (SA) trigger pull weight is 5 pounds, 4 ounces. Its double-action (DA) pull was off the scale, but I’d estimate it’s a stiff 14 to 15 pounds. The SP101 has cylinder locking points on the frame breech-face and on the yoke/crane. There is also no traditional grip frame, but there is a stud or post, which houses the hammer mainspring. One-piece, black rubber grips slip on over this post and are held in place by a screw and locator pin.
Self-defense ammunition seemed most suitable for my evaluation, so I settled on three .327 Federal Magnum loads and two loads in .32 H&R Magnum (which will chamber in .327 Magnum revolvers). The first was DoubleTap’s DT Tactical, with a Barnes 75-grain, all-copper hollow- point bullet (current loads have a 60-grain bullet); Federal provided its American Eagle .327 Magnum load that has a 100-grain jacketed soft point (JSP) bullet; and, finally, Speer’s Gold Dot (GD) .327 Magnum load with a 115-grain bonded hollow-point (HP) bullet. In .32 H&R Magnum, I picked a 100-grain jacketed hollow-point (JHP) load from High Desert Cartridge Co. and Hornady’s Critical Defense, with an 80-grain flex-tip (FTX) HP bullet.
For my combat shooting evaluation, I wanted a high-ride outside- the-waistband holster that offers good concealment. I chose the Direct Line Carry Confidence CCR from Barranti Leather. This holster has an open-top with a tension screw for security. I also used its Barranti Spare speedloader pouch and paired it with an HKS 32-J speedloader. For an additional six cartridges on my belt, I used Galco’s new Pick Six Ammo Carrier. This leather belt-slide divides the cartridges into pairs, secured by tension screws, for easy speed or tactical reloading. My belt is a Bigfoot Gunbelt from Alien Gear, 1.5 inches wide and nearly a quarter- inch thick to support almost any holstered handgun.
My shooting test session began with an accuracy evaluation at an indoor range. I fired five, five-shot groups with each of the test loads at 15 yards. I used a sandbag rest and shot in SA mode. My best group measured 1.14 inches and was made using the Speer Gold Dot .327 Magnum load.
I used a 30-round combat course to evaluate rapid-fire shooting and reliability, for which I used the .327 Magnum Federal 100-grain JSP. The silhouette target I used had a possible score of 305 points.
With the leather gear and gun loaded on my belt, I began the course. Stages were at 3, 7 and 15 yards. I used strong and support-hand only shooting and double taps. All stages started from the holster, six rounds per stage, for five stages. The felt recoil with this load was acceptable in my opinion, but there is a rather sharp muzzle flip and muzzle blast. A firm hold was used on the SP101 with this round, and the score was 251/305. This .327 Magnum load has a pressure range of around 45,000 pounds per square inch, so I encountered stuck cases, flat primers and cylinder lock-up at times. This only occurred with the Federal cartridge. I informed folks at Lipsey’s about this situation, and we agreed that it was an ammunition-related problem. Things like this are best learned at the range.
To discover which .327/.32 Magnum cartridge might be best for self-defense purposes, I set up a bullet expansion and penetration test. A new block of 10% ballistic gel from Clear Ballistics was used. On one end of the block was affixed four layers of denim cloth as per the FBI bullet test protocol. Five of the test cartridges had JHP bullets and one had a JSP bullet. One shot was fired with each at the gel block from 6 feet. The block was 16 inches long and all but two of the bullets completely penetrated the block and were not recovered. The .327 Magnum DT Tactical load from DoubleTap with its monolithic copper HP bullet penetrated to 13.5 inches, and, despite the cloth barrier, mushroomed perfectly. The other bullet that stopped in the block was the Hornady .32 H&R Magnum Critical Defense 80-grain FTX-HP. Its red synthetic plug inside the hollow bullet nose kept the denim material out and allowed the bullet some minimal expansion. It had tumbled in the gel block, and was situated base forward, with the red plug just ahead of the bullet. Small bits of denim were found with both bullets.
I believe the size and configuration of this new Ruger SP101 makes it a good self-defense handgun choice. It will likely perform best in this function with .327 Magnum ammunition. It has less felt recoil that a .357 Magnum, and at this point, the DT Tactical load from DoubleTap would be my choice. This revolver’s versatility also makes it a handy “kit gun,” as it can also fire .32 S&W and .32 S&W Long ammunition.
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