224 FA Wildcat

The 224 FA revolver with a 7.5-inch barrel was topped with the Bushnell 2-6x variable pistol scope.

As this prairie dog at SPUR Outfitters learned, the Freedom Arms Model 97 in 224 FA is a serious varmint gun.

Perhaps the hottest ticket in today’s shooting sports is extreme long-range target shooting. While I’ve been impressed with what’s been accomplished with new guns and by individual shooters, as a lifelong passionate handgunner, I have not been swept up in the craze. In fact, I’ve been a little disappointed that there hasn’t been a corresponding surge in long-range handgun shooting. However, given the incredible increase in the sales of defensive handguns over the last two years, I’m happy to accept the extra five to 10 million pro-Second Amendment voters.

I must admit, though, that the enthusiasm of the long gunners has sparked my interest in jumping back into long-range handgun shooting. Hopefully, I’ll get up to Sundance, Wyoming, in June for a look at the relatively new annual 1,000-yard handgun match. While I don’t have the specialized equipment needed to compete, I will get some trigger time hunting varmints at SPUR Outfitters with Freedom Arms’ newest Model 97 revolver chambered in the 224 FA. No, I’m not talking about 1,000 yard shots at rodents, but I am talking about realistic 100-yard-plus opportunities at prairie dogs with a sensibly-sized wheel gun using a specially designed, hand loaded only, high-pressure cartridge.

For readers who are not familiar with, or have never fired a Freedom Arms revolver, the company makes what is arguably the most accurate revolver on the planet. Fourteen years after introducing the now famous five-shot .454 Casull in 1983, Freedom introduced the smaller framed Model 97 in 1997. Like its big brother, the downsized Model 97 features line-bored cylinders, a procedure in which cylinders are fitted to an individual revolver before the chambers are bored. In addition, all parts are meticulously fitted and polished with barrel/cylinder gaps held to under .003 inch for maximum velocities. Add Freedom’s slick action job that ensures the trigger will break crisply at around 3 pounds, and you have a revolver superbly designed for hunting.

Dick’s early fireforming loads utilized Hornady V-MAX 40-grain bullets with H-4227.

With his “as issued” short barreled 224 FA and prescription glasses by DeCot, Dick was able to shoot well.

The most distinctive feature of the new 224 FA caliber is that it’s a bottleneck cartridge, specifically a .327 Magnum case necked down to fire .22-caliber rifle bullets. Maximum overall cartridge length is 1.60 inches to ensure the loaded round does not protrude from the front of the cylinder. There are a couple of excellent reasons for using the Federal .327 Magnum case. The smaller case diameter allows the Model 97 to be a traditional “six shooter” and because of its transfer bar system, it can be carried with all chambers loaded. In fact, all of Freedom Arms’ Model 97s under .40 caliber are six shooters; those chambered in .41 Mag, .44 Special and .45 Colt hold five rounds. In addition, the .327 Magnum case is designed to operate at pressures above 40,000 pounds per square inch (psi), higher than any of the other handgun magnum calibers except the .454 Casull. Loaded with .22-caliber rifle bullets weighing from 30 to 50 grains that are launched at around 2,000 feet per second (fps), the little revolver definitely qualifies as a long-range varmint option.

Don’t look for ammunition at your favorite gun store, because as stated above, you’ll be rolling your own loads, and it’s not the same simple task as running .38 Specials through your progressive reloading press. When ordering a gun from Freedom Arms in one of the multiple barrel lengths available, you’ll also order a set of reloading dies that will come with some simple yet detailed instructions on how to proceed, and what to expect. One of the things to expect is a velocity difference of 100 fps between the standard barrel lengths, so while you can get over 2,200 fps from the long, 10-inch barrel, you’ll be closer to 2,000 fps from the 5.5-inch barrel like the one on my Model 97. If your varmint hunting is done mostly from a shooting table or off the hood of your truck, the 10-inch barrel topped with a Bushnell 2-6x variable power scope is definitely the way to go. Carefully loaded and with some practice, shooters will be able to reach out beyond the 100-yard mark and shoot rodents with a high degree of success. For a compromise between reasonable portability and maximum long-range success, the scoped, 7.5-inch barrel is probably the best selection.

After working up handloads, some additional load experimentation produced this one-inch group.

I chose the 5.5-inch barrel for a couple of reasons. I planned to carry the gun in search of larger varmints, plus Freedom’s CEO Bob Baker brought the gun on a varmint shoot and let me use it. We came to terms on price and the gun went home with me. I am not known for self-control when I spend some time with a truly classic handgun! I later added a Leupold red dot optic to compensate for my aging eyes. Freedom Arms’ iron sights present a clear sight picture for daylight hunting and are adjustable to accommodate the different bullet weights available, but the red dot is much easier for me to use, particularly out past 25 yards, and it has dramatically improved my success rate.

Reloading is as simple as any other bottleneck cartridge using a two-die set, but with a couple of big-time caveats thrown in. The first die forms/resizes and deprimes the case. Trim newly formed cases to 1.115/1.200 inches and make sure the headspace is between .005 and .010 inch. Freedom Arms advises against annealing new cases because it can cause premature case sticking when fired. Prime or re-prime the cases with the tool of your choice, pour in a measured amount of powder and seat the jacketed bullet. The two major additional considerations are:

Dick used a 100-yard range to test loads.

1)    Make sure your cases (and revolver chambers) are clean and dry. Bottleneck cartridges fired in revolvers with lubricant anywhere in the chamber may back out of the cylinder against the breach face and lockup the gun. Running one of the modern bore snakes or cleaning ropes through the barrel and each chamber takes care of the gun; tumbling the cases will both dry and clean the empty brass.

2)     Powder charges in cases that have just been formed by the sizing die or fireformed only once, must be reduced. The 224 FA case may require two to four firings to achieve maximum internal volume, allowing a handloader to increase charges for higher velocities. Sort cases by number of firings and don’t worry about case life; with properly reloaded ammunition a handloader should get 10 or more firings per case.

The loading data in the table focuses on two powders, H-110 and IMR-4227, both of which have produced good results. IMR-4227 is less temperature sensitive, something to think about if you’re hunting in areas that are noticeably hotter than the range at which you test handloads. Important note: All these loads used cases that had been fired three times, so check the instructions with your loading dies and make sure you use the suggested starting loads for initial firings. There are other powder candidates that show promise, like A-1680, but powders with slower burn rates require more case volume to produce comparable results, and the .327 Magnum brass is a small capacity case. A small variation in charge weight can and will produce some dramatic changes in velocity and pressure. Be precise in measuring powder charges.

The 224 FA is set up to use small pistol primers, and testing to date has shown consistent ignition with both Winchester and CCI 500 primers. The parent Federal .327 Magnum cases come already primed from Freedom Arms with Federal 205 Small Rifle primers. You can use them for the initial fireforming loads, but switch to pistol primers after the initial firing. Hotter ignition can cause the revolver cylinder to bind before reaching full potential loads.

Load to consistent overall cartridge length for the different weight bullets selected. There are a number of brands and weights of .22-caliber bullets that will work in the 224 FA which is good, given the shortage of shooting supplies available in stores. If available, I tend to stick with 40-grain bullets because consistency is simpler than diversity. That may be incorrect thinking in some circles, but not at my loading bench.

Freedom Arms CEO, Bob Baker, is an avid hunter. Not everything he does is this much fun, but a day varmint shooting at SPUR Outfitters can make up for a lot of dull meetings.

When Bob Baker was developing load data, he used an extremely simple and effective technique to determine maximum loads in a specific gun. He would load one round and fire it. When he encountered any difficulties (e.g. rotational cylinder drag, sticky extraction, difficulty chambering), he would drop back down on the powder charge until the gun worked fine. He would then load six rounds, run them over the chronograph for velocity measurements while firing at a close range target to see if they showed decent accuracy. He would then take the promising (most accurate) loads and repeat the measurements using a 7.5-inch and 10-inch barrel with targets at 100 yards. The table shows these results with five different loads using bullet weights ranging from 30 to 50 grains. Both of his “test” guns were factory models equipped with Bushnell 2x-6x scopes. As shown, groups ranged from just under 2 inches to slightly over 3 inches. He did caution me that while dropping from a 7.5-inch to a 5.5-inch barrel results in a comparable drop in velocity (somewhere around 100 fps), this does not hold true for the shorter 4.75-inch barrel version. He recommends against ordering anything shorter than a 5.5-inch barrel.

This young lady is having success on prairie dogs with a Freedom Arms 224 FA.

About this time, I imagine that any shooter reading this is probably laughing at my referring to varmints slightly over 100 yards as being “long range.” I’m smiling back because I’m remembering the words of a good friend who motivated me to become a gun writer. He said that truly passionate shooters don’t always measure their success by counting hits versus misses, but rather in terms of “Grins per grain of gunpowder!”

Admittedly, my style of handgun hunting varmints is more about prowling pastures rather than patrolling prairies, but when I touch off 10 grains of IMR-4227 or H-110 in my Model 97 chambered in 224 FA, I’m rewarded with lots of grins that sometimes turn to outright giggles. It doesn’t get any better than that!