Smith of the Week: S&W 327 Titanium/Scandium 8-Shot .357 Magnum

I have seen and handled the S&W Performance Center revolver I may have the fortitude to save up for and I owe my dreams of my first S&W PC gun to Mas.

It's definitely a case of hero worship, but if you're a gun nut, who better to emulate than the great Massad Ayoob? IMHO he is one of the best gun writers in the business today, if not the best.

At right is Mas shooting the S&W Performance Center Model 327 8-shot .357 Magnum, the latest and greatest iteration of the venerable S&W Model 27, the original "Registered Magnum" with which Smith launched the .357 Magnum cartridge lo many years ago in 1935.

The photo I stole from Gun Digest, which is excerpting Mas' new book, Massad Ayoob's Greatest Handguns of the World.

I didn't know what 8-shot .357 Magnum snubby Mas was shooting when I first saw the photo on Gun Digest but then I got the opportunity to find out when I shot photos of the S&W 327 snubby at the gun shop where I work to list it on gunbroker.

S&W lists the features of the Model 327 .8-shot .357 Magnum double-action/single-action revolver thusly:

• Lothar-Walther Custom German Rifle Barrel
• Polished Button Rifling
• Smooth Double Action with Wolff Mainspring
• Includes 3 Full Moon Clips

It's 2" stainless-steel barrel liner is housed in a Titanium barrel shroud with its button rifling and Lothar-Walther custom magic. The 8-shot cylinder is also Titanium and the frame is black Scandium alloy, the combination of Titanium and Scandium making this ultra-light cannon weigh a mere 21 ounces unloaded.

Of course eight rounds of .357 Magnum would add considerably to that weight, maybe doubling it, but what good is an empty revolver? And I would hope the extra ammo weight would mitigate the substantial recoil to be expected from such an ultra-light snubby.

You can't repeal the laws of physics and what goes out the barrel also comes back into the shooter's hands. And the lighter the pistol, the more recoil the shooter has to absorb. I shot a S&W 396 .44 Special Titanium-Scandium Mountain Lite 5-shot revolver and it was a full load to handle. I learned why one gunwriter dubbed it the "Mountain Bite."

Hopefully one of these days I'll get the chance to shoot this S&W 327 before I plunk down the $1,250 required to take a new one home. But until then, dreams cost nothing.
P.S. If you thinking about it, too late. It's sold.