The 357 and Whitetail
Made you look! I don't know about now as much, but back in the 80s and maybe early 90s the above title would always stir controversy. Maybe still does. My first handgun deer was taken with a 4" 686. As a poor state worker, it was my only handgun. I remember the load I used. It was a handload and all I afford to feed the hungry beast as factory ammo was too expensive. It was a somewhat anemic 158 gr hardcast semi-wadcutter over about 5.5 grs of Unique in 357 brass. I loaded and shot 1000s of them. Not ideal for deer, but again, what I had. This particular deer got double tapped in the shoulder, shooting double action. (Did I mention I was also a part time policeman, and this was my duty gun, and fast double action was about all I shot back then?) The deer went about 25 yards and went down, but required a finisher. I remember being fairly impressed with the damage the 158 grainer did. This was a pretty respectable buck in my area at that particular time ( mid 80s). Apparently I had just left a Fidel Castro look alike party right before I shot this deer. Lol.
I have been feeling nostalgic lately and decided I might try to duplicate this silly stunt this fall (with a much better load and shooting single action). I beat my dealer out of this today...
So what do y'all think? Anybody using 357 these days? If so what load do you use?
I think I have 4 .357s in rotation and when I get done with my custom pocket hunter I will have 5. I nearly always prefer something that startes with a .4 but that fact is with good bullets and good shot placement it will kill them as dead as anything else.