The 357 Magnum is one of my favorite handgun calibers. Lots of 158 and 125 grain bullets, both cast and jacketed have been shot and loaded over the years. When I acquired a rifle in the same caliber, I wanted to try 180 grain bullets in it and naturally, they just had to be tried in a handgun as well. The handgun used is a S&W Model 19 with a 4-inch barrel. The rifle is a Winchester 1873 with a 24-inch barrel.

The load used in both guns is from the Hodgdon Powder Company Reloading Data Center. The load chosen is 13.0 GR. of H110. New Starline cases and CCI 500 primers were used. The 180 grain Missouri Bullet Co WFN coated bullets were seated to an overall cartridge length of 1.575 In. The crimp was done in a separate step. This is the starting load given by Hodgdon. The Max load given by Hodgdon is 13.5 grains. According to the Hodgdon web site, the 13,0 grain starting load produces 36800 copper units of pressure. The 13.5 grain Max load produces 39100 copper units pressure. Since the starting load and the Max load is so close, I weighed each charge instead of throwing the charges through a measure. This load out of the 4-inch barrel averages 1060 FPS which gives around 450 Ft. Lbs. of energy. There were no signs of excessive pressure with this load in this revolver. Recoil is a little more noticeable with the 180 Gr. bullet than with a 158 Gr. bullet but is far from unpleasant.

The 180 grain load was also shot from a Winchester 1873 with a 24-inch barrel. The same load in the rifle gave an average velocity of 1473 FPS. This gives about 867 Ft. Lbs. of energy. There were no signs of excessive pressure in this rifle. One of the things that we discovered with this coated bullet is that there is no noticeable barrel leading. When using bullets with conventional lube, there has always been some leading in the barrel at the last three or four inches of the barrel in this rifle. This bullet ought to make a dandy hunting combination for hunting down in the woods where shooting distances are going to be limited. Recoil from this round out of a rifle is very mild.

The Hi-Tek bullet coating seems to work really well. The coated bullets are slippery to the touch. They are in fact slippery to pick up and hold. The whole bullet is coated so no lead is exposed. The fact that no noticeable leading can be seen in the barrel is an excellent thing. The bullet profile with the wide flat nose should cut a good wound channel. This bullet feeds through the rifle flawlessly.

Missouri Bullet Co. offers many of their bullets with the Hi-Teck coating and they also are a supplier of the lube by itself for those who cast their own bullets and want to coat them.