Deer hunting .357

[Electricmo]

[QUOTE="Palladan44, post: 11705467, member: 269879"Use 158gr hollow points or JSP that are not watered down (like Remington Golden Saber 158jhps). Id say they have to be doing at least 1200fps (1,300-1,400 preferred!) to do what youre really going to want them to do.....penetrate almost all the way through the deer, at least enough to go through the vitals, and expand.![/QUOTE] I wouldn’t recommend hollow point handgun bullets for deer hunting. You really want a exit wound. Two points of blood loss.

 

[Palladan44]

[QUOTE="Palladan44, post: 11705467, member: 269879"Use 158gr hollow points or JSP that are not watered down (like Remington Golden Saber 158jhps). Id say they have to be doing at least 1200fps (1,300-1,400 preferred!) to do what youre really going to want them to do.....penetrate almost all the way through the deer, at least enough to go through the vitals, and expand.!

I wouldn’t recommend hollow point handgun bullets for deer hunting. You really want a exit wound. Two points of blood loss.[/QUOTE]
Ive seen 30-30, 30-06, 450 Marlin and .50 caliber black powder rounds all not make it through deer. So definitely dont expect a pass through with 357 Mag handgun very often. IMHO jacketed hollow points like Hornady XTP are EXCELLENT for deer. Absolutely EXCELLENT. The reason factory loaded jhps in 357 are loaded down are because they are looking for enough to expand but not too much to over penetrate more than 12-15" of tissue. They dont have deer hunting in mind when designing many 357 magnum factory loaded hollow points.
The only pass through i got on a Whitetail with a 357 magnum was where the jsp didnt expand much at all (based on the size of the exit wound) and the deer ran much further than any other ive killed using hornady XTPs (hollow point) which may i add only passed through one side, and get caught in the ribs or hide on the back side. I respectfully disagree, JHPs are great for Whitetail when using 357 Magnum. For dangerous game, or larger game than whitetail, whole different ballgame, penetration is paramount there if one chooses 357 as their caliber (i wouldnt)

 

[PapaG]

I now use either my Ruger 45 Colt (255 @1100) or my Super Blackhawk (250@1300). Failing that, my Contender 45 Colt, 260@1350.

 

[SDGlock23]

I would probably stick with either 140gr or 158gr XTP for deer use, maybe avoid the lighter 125gr although I'm sure that would work too, you just want to make sure you get good penetration. Personally I think 357 Mag is fine for deer, sure there are better options like perhaps a mid range 44 Mag or a warmer 44 Special if recoil is an issue, but the 357 will work if you put the bullet in the right spot.

 

[ECVMatt]

My experience is from a while ago, but we used to take quite a few TX whitetails with an old Ruger Blackhawk 6" and Winchester 145 grain Silvertips. Being in TX and hunting over feeders, we could wait for the right shot but anything within 50 yards dropped pretty quickly. A typical lung shot would cause the deer to stumble or buckle the front two legs, it would then attempt to run and usually be found within 50 to 100 yards at the farthest. I am not saying it would be my first choice now, but I would still confidently hunt deer with a .357.

 

[Huntolive]

Effective range all depends on what you can actually shoot accurately enough to humanely take a deer.
you're going to need to get out and do a lot of practice to be able to shoot accurately 50 yards.
357 is certainly capable of taking a deer and I would recommend a Smith & Wesson 686 or a Ruger GP100 or pretty much any Smith & Wesson performance center hunting model.

 

[Huntolive]

A Dan Wesson it's also a hell of a nice revolver but their prices have skyrocketed so I sold a couple of mine and only kept one.

 

[d2wing]

Update, I went and managed to climb into my stand with my rifle with some help. Didn't see anything but I enjoyed the view and the fellowship.

 

[WisBorn]

Update, I went and managed to climb into my stand with my rifle with some help. Didn't see anything but I enjoyed the view and the fellowship.

So glad you were able to get out for the hunt

 

[Huntolive]

Glad you were able to get out there and enjoy a beautiful time I'm sitting here on my ridge hunting right now.
He choose to pistol hunt don't overlook Dan Wesson revolvers they are nice and heavy and very accurate