.357 rifle for deer?

R. Pennock said:
Check your hunting Regs. for your area. Some parts of the country may not allow you to use pistol calibers regardless if it is shot from a rifle.
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I think you are a little dated in this regard friend.

About two or three years ago Alberta changed this rule.
Now 357, 44 magnum as well as 7.62 X 39mm is now allowed here. (along with many others above .23 calibre & centerfire)

The NWT is the only 44mm holdout, for the cartridge case.
I am unsure about Quebec.
 
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I my experience the .357 magnum is perfectly fine for hunting deer up to around 100 yards. I would not recommend the 125 grain bullet range.
I have used the Lyman Keith 170 grain SWC with great success. Full penetration on a broadside shot (as expected) and the deer was down after a 20 yard run. The range was around 75 yards.
This year I am loaded with Hornady 158 grain XTP and expect similar performance.
 
My 357SIG Beretta Storm shoot 124gr hollow points at 2200 fps - that is plenty fast and heavy bullet to dispatch a deer. I am thinking about soft point bullet in same weight but nobody manufactures them. I think 9mm HP bullet at such velocity will be a bit too much of a meat destruction.
 
The .357 mag. is a wimpy round that makes the .30-30 look like a high powered boom stick and not exactly my choice for deer. I'm sure it does ok on broad side shots straight into the ribs. I wonder what kind of penetration it would have on an angling frontal shot through a shoulder though?
 
This is why I asked about using a the .357 in a rifle for deer hunting-actual experiance[including failures]The single shot or ''under 100 yard'' distance limitation doesn't bother me any more than hunting with my black powder rifle or crossbow.I wouldn't attempt a shot over 100 yards with my Hawkin or 40 yards with my Excaliber and closer is better for both of them,as well as picking my shots

Googling 357 loads in a rifle barrel 16'' long come up with 1800 fps with 180 gr cast bullets-which if are to be believed appear quite adequite for deer[gunblast.com article on using a 357 in a winchester compact rifle [16'' barrel]-shooting 180 gr buffalo bore shells].I wonder what velocity you could get with the same loads in a 28'' barrel from the rolling block?It seems to me the longer barrel is getting a lot better results than a shorter revolver could ever achieve,which may be one reason why it is not recognised as a moderate range deer hunting cartridge.180 gr of lead moving at even 1800 fps is going to carry a lot of smack to it,and I can't see any deer hit behind the shoulders going too far

The intriguing thing about shooting the .357 in a rifle is it appears from the loading data it can be shot using low powered target loads-or using higher powered hunting loads matching 30/30 ballistics ,and that makes it a very versatile rifle for everything from punching paper,small game and up to hunting deer
 
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Here is an excellent article that covers Marlin 1894 357 mag/44mag/45 Colt pistol cartridge chambered lever guns it should clear all this up for everyone... :)

h ttp://www.leverguns.com/articles/fryxell/marlin_1894.htm
 
I'm a huge fan of the 357 magnum both as a target/plinking round and a hunting round (given its range limitations). If you are a reloader, you can taylor your rounds to improve carbine performance... in particular, Lil'Gun can turn out some excellent numbers for the 158gr JSP and heavier cast.

As to the baby rolling block, I used to own one of the early Uberti/Navy Arms imports and liked it very much. It is an extremely nimble rifle with the 18" barrel. I ended up selling it when I came across a well-priced Marlin 1894c. For me, the Marlin is more flexible and a bit more fun at the range.

One of the things that you could look into for the RB is having the chamber reamed out to 357 Maximum. There are a couple posts on the Internet that describe this rechambering. The SAAMI max pressure for 357 Magnum is 35KPSI while 357 Maximum is 40KPSI, so there is a difference and it's worth getting a competent gunsmith to determine whether your particular action is safe to make the conversion with.

The 357 Mag is a capable round, but if you wanted to give it a bit more oomph, the 357 Max can approach 35 Rem performance. At that point, I'd think the limiting factor to effective range would be the quality of sights on the rolling block. My RB had a leaf rear and no provision for a peep, which is one of the reasons I sold it... I didn't want to drill/tap it.
 
I have witnessed one deer (blacktail) shot with a 357 Winchester carbine with 158g jacketed softpoints. Shot was frontal semi quartering, not quite broadside, at about 30 yrds. Shooter was an experienced hunter, but had not used the rifle or caliber for deer previously.
Never recovered the deer, and not from lack of effort. It ran into thick, heavy cover and left no blood trail.
While this is only one incedent, first impressions tend to have a lasting effect. I would personally not bother with a 357 mag for deer.
 
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