[Handgun'r]

Maybe a day late, and a dollar short....but,

I carried the .357 Mag on duty, and as my dept's firearm instructor for years.
During our daily activities, we had to shoot hundreds of deer on calls varying from car accidents, to just general wounding from neglectful hunters, or the deer's own mishaps.

I've shot them from point blank, to maybe darn close to 100yds. at times. It's just sometimes you couldn't get close enough to the animal, but we tried to get as close as possible.

Although there are stronger caliber's out there, the .357 Mag., if properly and carefully used can do the job pretty well.

As my dept's firearms instructor, I had to test, and report on many various types of commercial ammunition.
I've used everything from ballistic gelatin, to wet newsprint, and also the live deer as test beds.
After all was said and done, we settled on the Winchester Silvertips at that time. I couldn't just state they were better, I had to prove it with data, and be able to back it up in court if someone was shot.
I had no "axe to grind", nor did I prefer one brand over another. I tested everything I could commercially get my hands on for duty ammo.

Sorry Rocky, but I gotta disagree with you on the hollowpoint issue. They performed excellently, as did the Speer GoldDots when doing performance tests with the NY State Police and Speer at our range. We literally shot through everything imaginable.

The older 158gr. Federal softpoints we use to use worked well on car doors, and heavier stuff, but they failed to expand well in several other areas, and we needed something that had a better balance overall.

I will say this in agreement somewhat, that I would definitely use a softpoint bullet when it came to marginally lighter bullets from 125-140grs'.
I've loaded the Sierra Power Jackets from 140-170grs. in the Magnum (I think) since they started making them. (I remember when they made the 140, and even the 150grs. back then, but they're discontinued now. )
Also, in relation to the softpoint theory somewhat, I'll admit to being a longtime cast bullet caster and user, and I now shoot them exclusively in my revolvers. In the heavier calibers they work well, but will overpenetrate if you make them too hard, naturally.
I haven't used any for deer in the .357 that I remember, but I even have hollowpoints in cast moulds as well.
I feel that the larger meplat of the .44's and .45 caliber bullets imparts more energy to the target and this in itself has a measureable affect. Expansion is there, but not as explosive as pure lead naturally. In comparison, I think that the softpoints and JHP's would be mnore closely related in performance, than they would to the cast bigger meplat bullets....but that's me.

A 158-170gr JHP (preferrably the latter) over H110/W296, or Li'l Gun makes for a very potent load out of the .357, and in my opinion, in most cases, they better the factory loads by quite a margin.


Take care,
Bob