Their light, handy brush rifles and good for varmint and small deer. The hot loads make them pretty impressive from what I've read the real good ammo out there (buffalo bore, lehigh, underwood, etc.) push the .357 carbine into the mid 30-30 power territory, of course high end .357 can't compete against high end 30-30. But your basically getting a pistol caliber carbine with rifle ballistics, which I think is pretty cool, plus all the hollow points and other cool rounds for .357 that just don't exist (or are disappointing) in rifle calibers. Also .357 has a huge bullet weight range, as low as 90-110gr all the way up to 180-220gr if you want to cast your own lead, where 30-30 is typically 125-175. I'm trying to talk myself into buying a .357 carbine if you can't tell.