I decided to take advantage of Plycons Armory’s sale on gas guns, and more specifically their .357’s revolvers for only $49.99. They sell for $100+ at most other retailers, so this was quite a good deal. I chose the 6-inch over the 4 inch, because I saw no reason for me personally to get the smaller of the two. The longer barrel never hurts, and I knew it would have a nice big “bad boy” look to it. I know that the gun would be big, but not as big as it ended up being. It is a pretty big pistol, but did manage to fit in my universal holster.

The Looks and Feels

When I first held the gun, I realized exactly how big it was. This is one big intimidating pistol. Just the way I like it… It is entirely made out of ABS plastic on the outside, with only some little metal parts here and there. I do believe the hammer, trigger, and cylinder release are metal, but it is difficult to tell. The grip of the pistol seems to be some kind of rubber that has a definite shape, and is not flexible. After thoroughly inspecting all the parts of the gun, and briefly reading the manual, I decided to see what the shells looked like. The shells are perhaps the coolest feature on the weapon. They are nice shiny, brass shells that really make the good look realistic, especially when loading and reloading. I would definitely pick this revolver over other revolves, solely on the fact that the shells are removable. The KWC’s may not be able to compare to other high quality revolvers, in terms of feel, and how realistic they feel, but the shell feature, really makes the gun seem more realistic, and its surprising that other companies doe not use the removable shell design for their revolvers.

These are the shells, the picture isn't as great in showing the smooth shiny looks of them, but trust me, they look nice, smooth and shiny. You may be able to see them in the background of other pictures.

In terms of trademarks, there really is not much at all. It has some things for the real gun, and a couple others for KWC, the manufacturer, and other than that all the plastic on the gun is pretty plain. Then of course there are some things on the shells, but that will be described later. On the left side of the barrel it says “Model 357” in thin print. Above the trigger on the left side is the serial number: “97259831”. Above the trigger on the other side, it says “KWC” and below that it says “made in Taiwan”. On the left side of the pistol’s grip, it also says “KWC” on a dull bronze circle.

This is the bottom of the shell, but it is very difficult to make out the "Super Magum MM357".

In terms of use, this gun has a very nice feel. Very easy to move around with, easy to get a hold of, and aim. The textured rubber grip is pretty nice to have if you don’t wear gloves, since you can get a good hold on the gun, more so than plastic grips found on most airsoft guns. The rubber adds the friction so that you have a steadier, and surer grip on the gun. Having a gun that you can aim, and move with easily is a must if you plan to use it in a skirmish.. It is kind of hard to take out of the holster, due to its large size, but the holster I was using for it was not designed for the revolver. So if you want to be able to get the pistol out quicker, use a holster designed for this type of revolver. This gun feels pretty solid, but disappointingly, it does not feel that realistic. The plastic doesn’t feel as realistic as my KJW M9, and it also doesn’t feel as durable. It would be quite a task to actually break this gun, but in terms of feel, it just isn’t as good as other pistols that I have come in contact with. Another thing is that I wish it had some more weight to it. It is pretty light for its size, only 2.5 pounds, and I think more weight would really enhance the gun, and make it more realistic. But I am kind of being picky. It feels solid, and it is good to move around with, so I have no major problems here with the feel.

Loading Her up…

Here you can see the cylinder in its out position, and you can see the backs of all the shells.

Of course the logical next step in getting this gun is to shoot it. I loaded up the shells, which was pretty easy using the loading rod, which was provided. You simply pour the BB’s into the top (they will not fall through the bottom) and then you stick the shell into the other end, and load the 4 BB’s in pushing down with the rod. The gun has the six brass shells that have four rounds in each of them. All 24 rounds are shot out of the gun with out a problem. On the silver base of each shell, “Super Magnum MM357” is inscribed. In the center of this silver base, is a hole for the gas to go through, and push the BB’s out. After loading the six shells up individually, you have to slide them into their chambers. To do this, you must pull back on the cylinder release, found on the left side of the gun, to the right of the cylinder. You pull that back, and then pull the cylinder out. This reveals the chambers for all of the shells to go into. You slide the cylinder back in and then you only need to gas her up.

The gas goes into the bottom of the handle. The gas reservoir is located inside the grip, and can be accessed easily by just taking out the screw in the pistol’s grip. So you take the can, and stick it under the handle, with the gun upside down of course, to help load it easier. This gun in particular is a little tricky to load, you have to make sure to line it up perfectly, and even then you leak a lot of gas while loading. Overtime however, you will get better and better at it, until you lose barely any gas. Or you could use the methods that some people recommend, regarding modifying your gun so that gas will not leak out. Once it is full of gas you are ready to shoot.

That is where you put the gas in underneath of the grip.

Here is the gun completely loaded, up, and almost ready to shoot.

Shooting

This gun has two options for shooting, and it does make a difference, which you choose. You can simply pull the trigger, and the hammer will go back, first, and then release forward, all in one trigger pull. Also, whenever the hammer goes back, the cylinder rotates one round, and the hammer will come down on it. In other words, the gun will shoot, the BB’s out of the shell, one to the left of the barrel. You can easily repeat the semi-auto trigger pull process until you run out of ammo. The second shooting option is pulling back the hammer to shoot. So you pull the hammer back, pull the trigger, and repeat this process. The trigger has pretty deep groves on it, so that you can easily pull it back, with out accidentally discharging the gun. When you pull back the trigger, the cylinder will rotate once, so that you shoot out of another shell.

The difference between the two, is that manually pulling back the hammer is more accurate and consistent. When shooting it semi auto, the BB’s have a much greater spread, and occasionally, one will curve way off target. This is quite disappointing, since semi auto is what you usually want to use as a sidearm, to bring down your guy. I also was quite surprised that this happened. It seemed to me that this should not happen, since the same actions happen on both ways to shoot. However, I did discover that when shooting it semi-auto, that the cylinder does not line up as precisely with the barrel, as when you pull back the hammer. I don’t know why exactly, I guess just because it moves so fast. This explains the lesser accuracy, since the BB isn’t always perfectly lined up with the barrel, hop-up, etc. when you shoot it quickly on semi. The gun is quite accurate and consistent for a pistol when you are manually pulling the hammer back.

The gun is also quite powerful, chronoing about 275 fps with .20g fps fairly consistently with the first 24 shots of a gas fill. Keep in mind that with this same chrono, I have chronoed new stock AEGs at 265 fps. So it does have some nice power behind it. The range isn’t bad for a pistol, and it is surprisingly accurate at long ranges when you pull back the hammer. So if you plan on using this as your primary weapon, then this would be a good choice for you if you manually pull back the hammer. The six-inch barrel probably helps this range, but I don’t have a 4 or 2.5 inch to compare it with, so I don’t know for sure.

Here is the business end of the gun. Nice long, and "bad" looking. You also can see how they have the orange tip on this particular gun.

Since the gun is a non-blowback, and does not have any moving parts on the shots, besides the BB, there is a good thing, and a bad thing that comes along with it. I’ll start with the good thing, and that is that the gun is amazingly gas efficient. With one fill of Green Gas I am able to shoot about 18 shells of ammo (72 BB’s, 3 reloads of the original 6 shells), and the gun will continue to shoot until about 4-5 sets of reloading the shells, which is over 100 shots per gas fill. This is in fairly cool weather, so it may even be better in the warm weather. Unfortunately, along with this, the gun sounds very weak, and does not have any kind of power feel to the shots. It makes a quiet sound, and the BB comes flying out. The noise is compared to that of a springer by some, except it doesn’t have any kind of vibration like a spring gun would. No motion, no action, no loud noise, and with such a big pistol, this not satisfying at all… But it does save you money with gas.

Included with the gun was a loading rod specially designed for the shells, some BB’s, some HFC134a gas, some BB’s, and a shell-discharging tool. I decided to give the HFC134a gas a try in the revolver. The result was very disappointing. The gun was extremely weak, and the sound was even more disappointing then with the Green Gas. Maybe the gas that came with the gun wasn’t that good or something, but I personally am going to stick with Green Gas in the gun. With HFC134a, it shoots like a spring pistol, and I would say isn’t even worth it.

The Safety

The safety on this gun is just plain horrible. Both tactically, and safety wise. It is a small piece of plastic underneath of the hammer, that is very difficult to move. When on safety, it prevents the trigger from being pulled. However, if the hammer goes down, and hits, the gun will fire all four BBs in the shell that is loaded. And it will shoot them very fast since all the gas is going into those shots. This can happen at anytime whether the safety is on or off. So no matter what, if the gun is loaded, and the hammer hits the gun goes off. Very dangerous if you drop, and since the safety is under the hammer, it is quite simple accidently shoot the gun, while trying to turn the safety on or off. Tactically, it is hard to take the safety off. So if you leave the safety on in battle you will have trouble switching it, and it could cause you to get hit.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I am very glad that I got this gun. It was well worth the $49.99 in both feel, and performance, and is a very unique gun. I think this will be at my side for a long time. I however do think there are better options out there for skirmishing pistols. If you want a gun, and you don’t care about looks, gas efficiency, uniqueness, etc. and only want to have a gun that performs well in a skirmish, then you probably don’t want this gun. This gun gives people who like the revolver feel, a cheap alternative that is cheap gas wise, and has the removable shells, and shoots very well. But it does not have the best feel in the world, and is less than satisfying when you shoot it. So all in all, take what I have said about the gun above, and decide whether it is worth it to you. For me personally, I don’t think I would pay over $100 for it, but then again I paid $49.99 for it, so I don’t think I’ll ever have to worry about that question.