is the 357 mag

[white eagle]

adequate to hunt deer sized game with
yes I know all about shot placement just wondering if anyone has any first hand
hunting knowledge with this cartridge ??
I mainly use the 44 mag and 45 colt but I have access to a 357 as well
thought I may work up a hunting load for it IF its up for the task

[subsonic]

No, the class IIIA fur on a whitetail is impervious to all .357 ammo.

[white eagle]

so what would be considered a good hunting weight boolit in that cal ?

[SP101GUY]

The Lee 158RF works great for me, but I shoot them in the head.

AJ

[44man]

I don't like it because it is too bullet construction specific. The right bullet works, the wrong one will fail.
Everyone says bullet placement but good luck shooting off hand so you need a scope and a rest for every shot.
I have no time to work out stuff with the little gun so it drops deer from 10 yards to 100 every time.

[Char-Gar]

Meplat is the name of the game for take down of deer with cast bullets from handguns. The .357 will work, but the 44 and 45 will work better. I don't know why anyone would choose the .357 over the 44 or 45 if they have the choice.

[bigboredad]

Hey isn't your son going to be mad if you take back is present I have no experience so i can offer nothing but my opinion. I think a heavy bullet with a good sized meplat would be the best choice again just a opinion. Have you talked to Tom he might know what would work the best and you know he can build the best

[spqrzilla]

Can you kill deer with a .357 Magnum? Sure. But its probably pretty much on the bottom of the range of adequate cartridges. In Colorado, the handgun power requirements in the regulations pretty much forbid its use. And like Chargar I don't think its the best choice.

[MBTcustom]

I think that .357 mag loaded with 200grain boolits with a hot charge of powder would be just fine for close range work (>50yrds) on small sized deer, especially if you are shooting with an 8" barrel. Most of the deer here in Arkansas don't get much bigger than 150lb. I would also use a boolit that has a flat point or maybe a hollow point.

[19112TAP]

Ranch Dog is coming out with a mold for the Marlin 357 that will have a large meplat soon, I got one of the first ones and have been working up loads for my Marlin 1894c and also my Ruger Bisley and so far this boolit has some promise. You can find a post on here in the levergun area that shows the boolit and some hogs he was able to take with them.

[9.3X62AL]

Exactly one whitetail with the 357 in 1984, and the critter went DRT. Bullet used was the old-school Speer 146 half-jacket HP, and it went through-and-through. The load wasn't monster-strong, likely 15.0 grains of WW-296 or thereabouts. The revolver LOVED that bullet (6" M-586).

I'm playing around with a BisHawk x 357 Magnum and using Lyman #358156 run to 1550 FPS or so. Such loads are marked on the base with red Hi-Liter to keep them AWAY from my 19 x 2.5", 686 x 4", or pre-27 x 6.5". RUGER ONLY. These are also loaded "long" and crimped into the lower crimp groove, and Ackley-level powder-pouring with WW-296 and Alliant 2400. These loads did well and appeared safe in winter temps, but I want to try them at 100*+ before pronouncing them "safe" in my Bishawk. I won't give out load data, sorry. It's rated "R" with gratuitous violence, though extraction has been effortless to date.

[Ohio Rusty]

My wife uses a 170 grain HP GC NOE in her contender. Plenty of medicine with good bullet placement. Placement is the key with any caliber.
Ohio Rusty ><>

[white eagle]

Meplat is the name of the game for take down of deer with cast bullets from handguns. The .357 will work, but the 44 and 45 will work better. I don't know why anyone would choose the .357 over the 44 or 45 if they have the choice.

is that the copper thingy on the back ?

[MBTcustom]

No, grasshopper, the copper thingy on the back is a gas check. The meplat refers to the flat nose and how big it is. comes from the french, when they tried to say "flat"they got their "muh" mixed up in there.

[songdog53]

Yes, you can for can kill a whitetail with 22LR but i perfer the 44mag because hunt in brush and want it to either hit ground there or if runs will be leaking good. The round will do it's job if you do yours and enjoy it and be careful.

[Bass Ackward]

People lose perspective.

Many here would be embarrassed to say that a 30 caliber, 160 grainer at 1800 fps wouldn't kill a deer.

Yet feel no regret saying that a 35 at 1600 fps with a 160 grainer isn't enough.

Strike velocities below 1200 fps should be avoided. Go from there.

What you do during the reloading and load development process is the key. Discipline during use is the difference maker between success and failure.

[Whitworth]

As long as it is loaded correctly (this applies to every firearm you choose), and you do your part, it is adequate. JMHO.

[44man]

As long as it is loaded correctly (this applies to every firearm you choose), and you do your part, it is adequate. JMHO.

That is the key! Take a .30 with a pointed hard cast, it is a paper punch. Flatten the nose, it is still a paper punch. Oh sure, hit the CNS and it will kill, so will a stick. There is velocity so make the boolit expand without a loss of penetration and things get good.
A .357 is not much larger so the meplat has not improved yet. Make it heavier and still not much with a hard boolit so you need some expansion but velocity is lower then a rifle so you can't go too far or penetration is lost. The boolit is only as heavy as the lightest .44 that is not good at all either with cast or a quick opening jacketed. (The light .44 cast has a better meplat.)
Fast opening .357's will not penetrate either.
A balance must be found and that will change a lot for each animal size.
That makes the caliber very hard to work with.
It sure will kill but don't expect everything you shoot to drop or leave a blood trail. DRT means a CNS hit, can you do it?

[sixshot]

Years ago I took a couple of mulies with a 150 gr Sierra JHC, no problem but always felt it was marginal. I have a friend who's taken several black bears with his but the shots were close & he could place the slug right where he wanted it.
One of the better known gun writers uses one quite often with Federal factory ammo & a 180 gr jacketed slug from an 8" revolver & has taken many whitetails with it. The answer is, it will work but there isn't much margin of error. There are better calibers out there.
This is one place where a softnose 357 slug works great, it gives much more expansion & will also give the needed penetration.

Dick

[Larry Gibson]

As long as it is loaded correctly (this applies to every firearm you choose), and you do your part, it is adequate. JMHO.

Concer with that. I've killed numerous deer with a .357 using numerous different types of ammuntion. I do not concur with the heavier bullets being the best. The quickest kills with heart/lung shots using 4 -6" barreled revolvers came with 125 JHP/SPs at 1450 - 1600 fps.

Using cast bullets a 358156 cast of 16-1 Lead Tin alloy, HP'd with the Forster 1/8" HPing tool to 1/3 - 1/2 the nose depth and loaded to 1450+ fps in a 6"+ revolver makes for a very deadly deer load within 100 yards if you can put the bullet in the heart lung area. The several deer i've shot with this combination have all been one shot kills and the deer went down very quickly with minimal travel. All wound channels showed excellent expansion of the bullet and were through and through. There was no evidence of the nose blowing off the bullets.

I have no problem handgun hunting deer with such a combination in a 6"+ barreled revolver or a 10" Contender or cabine for that matter. Even if I had to shoot a deer with a 4" barreled revolver my concern would be bullet placement as always, not whether the .357 cartridge is capable. Additional caliber size, recoil and muzzle balst can not make up for poor bullet placement.

Larry Gibson