.357 magnum rifle for deer?

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357 mag is quite legal and effective in Indiana. If you want the most out of it, you should reload it. Just for the record we have no Pistol cartridge rule anymore. We can now use any round .357 and up with a case length of up to 1.8"

If you dig around the web you will find a boat load of new wildcats this year.

Myself I use a .357 maximum and soon a .445 super mag in H&R. Also am building a short .358 winchester on a H&R platform. Yes it is DNR approved.

Lonny
 
MCgunner said:
Jeez, these states do have some witless bureaucrats in their DNRs. :rolleyes:
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I got one better than that. For coyote or hogs during furbearer season I can use a 30-378 weatherby magnum. But a 357 carbine is forbidden because its larger than 30caliber.

Unless you're hunting a non AGFC owned WMA. Then .22 magnum is the biggest you can use.

Provided it has a 4" bbl 25acp is a legal deer caliber in AR


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Remember ,the .357 AIN'T a high powered round.
In my opinion a 50 yard thing at BEST.
Shot Placement , Shot Placement, Shot Placement.
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It's High Powered enough for deer hunting and self defense for shure. Accuracy is good beyond 50yds. with a good rifle, I have a Colt "Python" 6" barrel that shoots deadly accurate at 50 yds. As with any shot I do agree: "Shot Placement , Shot Placement, Shot Placement".
 
Want to read about huntin with a .357 Lever rifle goggle Jerry Lester, he has many great post across the web. He hunted big game and small game and feed his family.
 
Well, Just for argument sake I used A HIGH POINT .40 S&W and dropped a doe with 185gr JHP @ 75 yards. ( I wanted to see IF it would work.) Anything longer than that and I go to 30-06.
 
357s are a marginal choice at best for deer. I would personaly MUCH rather have a 44 mag or 454 carbine when a big buck shows up, but I don't like tracking anything I shot, so take that for what it's worth.
 
357s are a marginal choice at best for deer. I would personaly MUCH rather have a 44 mag or 454 carbine when a big buck shows up, but I don't like tracking anything I shot, so take that for what it's worth.
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You got 1000 lb deer or something or do they were kevlar there? In the late 19th century, many a head of game fell to a black powder loaded .44-40, ya know. That's a pop gun compared to the .357 in the same rifle.

I've chronographed my load (165 SWC at just under 1900 fps) and run the numbers on an exterior ballistics program. It's pushing over 700 ft lbs at 100 yards. Now, that's off from the .30-30 due to poor BC, but it's still as much as my 4" barreled .357 revolver makes at the muzzle. So, you're telling me if I walked up to a deer. put the muzzle of my revolver on his shoulder, and fired, I couldn't possible kill the animal? :rolleyes:

None of the few deer and hogs I've taken with a 6.5" Blackhawk and the 20" Rossi 92 carbine have gone more than 25 yards after the shot. One doe was shot at 80 yards with the carbine. Granted, it's only 3 deer and 2 hogs, not a large sample size, but the .357 did the job.
 
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Minimum recomended wound profile on deer sized game is 1/2"x12" and the 357 will only do that with some bullets and only within close range, the 44 mag will do that easly at any speed in which it will expand, I stand by my statement, the 357 is a functional yet marginal deer round, as is the 10mm, 223, 22-250, 45ACP, and the 45 LC at wimpy factory pressures.
 
Kachok said:
Minimum recomended wound profile on deer sized game is 1/2"x12" and the 357 will only do that with some bullets and only within close range, the 44 mag will do that easly at any speed in which it will expand, I stand by my statement, the 357 is a functional yet marginal deer round, as is the 10mm, 223, 22-250, 45ACP, and the 45 LC at wimpy factory pressures.
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Recommended by whom exactly?

Go peddle your book>magazine>interweb learned field experience elsewhere. The grownups with actual FEILD experience are talking here.

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Feild experence? You mean like the deer I have seen hit and run off to die God only knows where because some @$$#0!& decided he wanted to shoot one with his 1911? You mean like that kind of feild experence? Yeah got plenty of that. Again the 357 is marginal but functional. What does that mean, it means that it will do the job IF you can place it exactly where it needs to go, your range is within the speed limits for proper expansion, and you are not shooting a marginal angle like a sharp raking shot. If you can do all of that you would be fine with a 357, if you cannot you have no buisness wounding countless deer making stupid excuses like one dumkove I know all too well. I you want to shoot one high shoulder at 250yds skip the 357 and get an 06, but within archer range (and a little further) and angles the 357 will kill them just as dead as a 50BMG.
 
I would have to agree the .357 Carbine/ lever action will be plenty of power to kill a deer. If your using muzzle velocity on the box, it will be wrong for a carbine. The longer barrel creates higher pressure and higher velocity, than the pistol will generate. Now if some one is hunting deer with a 1911 .45 acp means 5" barrel or less... Not Legal to do in my state for a reason. In a carbine, if my 40 S&W can and will do it; a .357 mag most defiantly will. I would also recommend a sold tip or lead head, cause my carbine can shred the JHP rounds. This can be problematic; (1) it wasted a lot of meat due to blood shot and lead issues, and (2) they can break apart at closer ranges, creating a possibly of a smaller than desired wound channel. I have not experienced the latter, but I have been warned by many a gunsmith of that possibly. I can testify to the first one, I lost almost a whole quarter to lead and blood shot.
 
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Greetings
If that is what you have then you have enough. I would load at least a 180 grainer. That weight will drive through most corn crunchers leaving a good trail in red to follow up. There is no reason you cannot get 1650 fps with a powder like 110 or 296 and you do not need that much. The old 38-40 round was well known as a good deer round and it was doing good to get a 180 grainer going 1450 fps.
If the state of ILL. ever gets pistol caliber rifles approved I would not hessitate to use my 357 Marlin... well I would probably use the 41 mag first.
Mike in Peru
Mike In Peru
 
i used to live in ohio the land of shotgun hunting.
no hipowered rifles ,but you could use a pistol .357cal or larger straight wall cartridge only.
i purchased a smith mod 29 .44 mag with 8 3/8 barrel .
i killed 1 deer with it at about 60yds.
even for a revolver it had plenty of punch with rem 240gr semi jacketed hp.
 
I'll tell you something funny, one of the old timers I hunt with swears the .30 carbine is the best little deer gun on the planet. Now most states won't even allow 30 carbines to be used, but for him it was perfect, as many times as I have been hunting with him I have never seen him get any less then a perfect shot,(even freehand at range!) and he has a sixth sence when tracking game he has shot. We have a very different idea of perfect but it works for him.
 
i have always wanted a m1 carbine. i live in kentucky now and you can hunt with any center fire rifle, i dont agree with taking deer with a 223 but alot of people do it here. i my self use a rem700 vtr chambered in.308 win.
ist the perfect deer gun for me
 
Yeah I played with the 308, 7mm Rem Mag, and 270 win/WSM before I got my 6.5x55 and found my perfect deer gun, deadly accurate, horrific terminal results, effective range far further then I could ever shoot, and recoil so light small children can shoot it. Best of all no tracking, none, nadda, zero, zilch they are all dead right there or within a few feet. Honestly what more could you ever ask for?
 
my brother has a old ruger .44mag carbine, it was made in 76
kinda looks like a 10/22 loads from the bottom into a tube.
he swears by that gun for deer. its semi auto and pretty acurate
 
I have actualy been looking for one of those, they are a great little brush gun. I have hunted a few places where even a compact bolt gun is a pain in the butt to tote because the brush is just that thick, some places I have to crawl through. Gatta love Florida hunting :D
 
longer barrel creates higher pressure
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Well, not exactly. The longer barrel doesn't create higher pressure, but it utilizes more of the pressure by having the longer barrel, less wasted pressure by that slow burn powder that would have been flash/bang in a handgun. The magnum revolver calibers tend to shoot 3-400 fps faster in a rifle than a typical 6" revolver for this reason, not higher pressures. Auto pistol cartridges don't gain much by longer barrels as they are loaded with much faster burning powders.
 
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