The cylinder face is milled for use both with and without moon clips, courtesy of the rimmed .357 cartridge.

That was before I attached SureFire's new X300 light and a Leupold 2.5X scope at the same time. Suddenly it dawned on me that I now had the capability of making precision shots at night--out to ranges of 50 yards or more.

As soon as I had the chance, I was out prowling my friend's back field after dark, looking for a marauding skunk that had been in his chickens. I never did find that skunk, but I was amazed at how well the combination of the powerful light and the scope worked in the dark. I could easily discern and aim at objects way out there. If the light touched it at all, I could get a clear sight picture on it.

Several different factory loads were tested in the 327 TRR8. All performed well, and some exceeded expectation.

I figured that there was only one thing missing to make the TRR8 a true jack of all trades: a set of Crimson Trace Lasergrips. The 327 TRR8 is an N-frame, and the Crimson Trace grip designed for it is as comfortable, if not more so, than the factory grip. And, of course, there is that spectacular little red dot it casts onto the target.

After an afternoon of shooting with the iron sights just to break in the handgun, I cleaned it, attached the scope, and headed back out to see what the 327 TRR8 could really do. Since I had the Leupold scope aboard, I decided to stretch the test distance to 50 yards. I fired three consecutive full-cylinder eight-shot groups with each type of ammo that I had on hand, without allowing the revolver to cool between groups.

Some of the results were simply spectacular. Others were about what I would have expected from a quality revolver. The results can be seen in the accompanying chart.

ACCURACY RESULTS: S&W 327 M&P TRR8
.357 Ammo Type	Bullet Weight (gr.)	Avg. Velocity (fps)	Avg. Group (in.)
Speer Gold Dot	170	1,122	4.3
Remington JSP	125	1,434	2.0
Hornady JHP/XTP	140	1,195	3.1
Winchester Partition Gold	180	1,115	2.2
Speer Gold Dot	158	1,091	2.2
CCI Blaser	158	974	4.3
Black Hills +P JHP *	158	1,091	2.2
* .38 Special load. Notes: Velocity recorded 10 feet from the muzzle with a Shooting Chrony chronograph. Accuracy tested off a bench rest; results are the average of three eight-shot groups at 50 yards.

One tendency I did notice was that groups opened up just a bit as the handgun heated up. I'm sure that had I allowed the gun to cool between groups, averages would have been even smaller. In fact, most loads grouped under two inches for the first string, with one--the Winchester 180-grain Partition load--grouping into an amazing 1.06 inches.

If I were to hunt big game with the 327 TRR8, that would definitely be the load I'd choose. It's a full-house high-velocity load with a premium, heavy bullet and should perform very well.

After I finished my testing, I spent some time shooting steel silhouettes at 100 yards. Ringing the ram and pig was a cinch, and I worked my way down to a three-inch square swinger. Much to my amazement, I connected about four out of five shots off the sandbags.

When I had the chance, I took the revolver along on a Wyoming prairie dog hunt. At one point my buddy and I left the bench to stretch our legs, and I brought along the 327 TRR8. We managed to get within 50 yards of several of the large rodents. After missing a couple offhand, I settled into a sitting position, got steady, and dropped one with a perfect shot. I never could have done that with an iron-sighted semiauto.