.327 Federal in the Single-Seven

Last year I bought a Lipsey's Special, Single-Seven Ruger in .327 Federal. This 7-shot gun is based on the frame of Ruger's long popular Single-Six .22 rimfire. The cylinder window dimensions have been slightly enlarged and the cylinder dimensions likewise increased to fill the window which permits the chambering of 7 of the .32 caliber cartridges and handling the pressures those cartridges will generate.

Factory ammunition available since my purchase has been limited to the Federal American Eagle loaded with 85 and 100 grain soft-nosed bullets. While these two bullets are of different weight, the design for both seems to be the same and one can't tell the difference by simply looking at a loaded cartridge. This hasn't proven to be as accurate as I think the pistol should be and so I decided to load a known quality bullet, the Hornady 100 gr. XTP.

Bullet	Powder	Powder Charge	Muzzle Velocity	Muzzle Energy
Hornady 100 gr. XTP	AA-7	9.4 gr.	1462 fps	Muzzle Energy
Hornady 100 gr. XTP	AA-9	13.0 gr.	1572 fps	Muzzle Energy
Hornady 100 gr. XTP	2400	11.5 gr.	1405 fps	Muzzle Energy
Hornady 100 gr. XTP	H110	13.5 gr.	1525 fps	Muzzle Energy
Hornady 100 gr. XTP	Longshot	6.7 gr.	1402 fps	Muzzle Energy

However, the gun wasn't shooting well and so I sent it back to Ruger who did some work and returned it within a week. This first is the test target they sent with the invoice. They shot this test at 15-yards.

Today, I shot the gun with the Federal factory 100-grain bullet load. This is what 3 cylinders full looks like after being shot at 25-yards.

 

I also shot some of my reload of the 100-grain XTP over 9.4-grains of AA-7. This is that target.

Needless to say I was not happy. Is my eyesight to blame? Can I not shoot today? Poor trigger management? Had it with me so I got out my Garthwaite CCO and 5 magazines (6-7 rounds each) of mixed brand "white-box" ball. This is that target.

So, I think I can still shoot alright but the gun is just not going to group worth a fig. I did not want a cast bullet gun and I suspect it will be a pain to find a mold to cast a bullet big enough in diameter to work with the cylinder and bore.