Lloyd, I hear you. Some of these "experts" puzzle me as personal experience does not agree with their views. I so not have your experience on deer but have hunted them for about 50 years and have seen kills made by others when I party hunted and by my family. I have shot deer with muzzle loaders, long bows and recurves, muzzle loaders, handguns, BP cartridge and modern rifle. As I process my own deer I do not like some of the larger calibers, but stay pretty much within the parameters of what some call "deer rifles". The 30-30, 35 Remington, 243 (use Nosler partitions) and so forth. The 357 is about as small as I would want to go. Carried it to an appropriate deer stand, decided to go to another one and felt kind of silly sitting at that one when I had better rifles for the job. The 270 I had would have been good had my shots been more consistently longer. Should have loaded it down a bit as it was a bit nasty up close if a shoulder was hit.
The 357 is a handy little carbine when I put up wood during deer season and carry something on my tractor. So is a 30-30. As stated, I looked up reviews from people who shot deer with the 357 and used their recommendations and ratings. Some of these "experts" talk about performance in ballistic gelatin or that sort of thing. Never felt the desire to hunt gobs of gelatin.
DP