Well..."equal to the 357", *sorta*.
A lot of people with 357 guns the size of the SP101 or smaller aren't shooting "full house" 357 in them.
Common factory loads from Remington, Speer, Cor-Bon and the like can make 500ft/lbs energy from a 357 2" barrel. But most people just aren't doing so, especially newbie shooters. Buffalo Bore and Doubletap both have loads that can top 600ft/lbs energy even from a 2" - damned few people are determined enough for that
.
There's exceptions, people using 3" barrel SP101s as a woods defense gun while backpacking, but they're either hardcore shooters or they're carrying something they can't control.
Most people carrying the SP101 for street defense are either loading hot 38+P (between 225 and 350ft/lbs energy) or mild 357 loads (between 300 and 450ft/lbs).
For that group of people, the 327 makes loads of sense. They can start with the better 32H&RMag loads and work their way up to maxed-out 327s which in turn are right about where most would have stopped with 3
57s.
While getting one more shot.
Now, if you're the sort who can make use of REAL 357s at least some of the time, maybe that's where you need to go. But if not, there's nothing wrong with saying so and gaining another bullet.
My carry gun is a 357 of larger size than an SP101, and I carry and shoot monster 800ft/lb energy loads in it. It's controllable for me. But if this gun was an SP101 I don't think I'd carry that level of monster load (that would make almost 700ft/lbs in a 3" SP101).
