Thread: 357 and 44 mag for deer?

.44 Magnum is good medicine, often giving complete penetration at shorter ranges but the animals seldom go more than 20 metres if properly placed. .357 is a shorter range number but I did shoot a nanny Thar with one once (I'll tell you about it next time I see you).

Originally Posted by 300_BLK

Hey guys how do these go on deer?

Commercial ammo at around 100-150m would be the max.

Always loved the 357 for its ability to use 38sp for plinking.

Mostly shoot fallow and sika.

If they are no good will get a 45-70.

Cheers

.357 is sweet on deer. Fallow and sika will be no problem at that distance with good ammo. You won't get any further than 150m though. Had a lever in .357 and it was my fav gun, nice and light/compact. Had it for pig hunting and dropping deer when seen chasing the hounds, and it did the job very nicely.

Originally Posted by Cordite

Leaving aside shot placement etc....

For hunting on DOC land you are LEGALLY restricted to minimum .222 Remington, the lowest muzzle energy of which listed on Wikipedia is 1,141 ft/lbs muzzle energy.

The .357 Magnum according to Wikipedia is 583 ft/lbs muzzle energy but that is out of only a 4" barrel, maybe even a revolver.

Don't know how powerful a hot .357 load through a continuous 16" barrel will be, but it looks doable.

It's a restriction based on calibre, not muzzle energy

Originally Posted by Beavis

It's a restriction based on calibre, not muzzle energy

Correct. Esp seeing as pretty much any subsonic would be banned as v^2 matters bigly

Originally Posted by Cordite

Leaving aside shot placement etc....

For hunting on DOC land you are LEGALLY restricted to minimum .222 Remington, the lowest muzzle energy of which listed on Wikipedia is 1,141 ft/lbs muzzle energy.

The .357 Magnum according to Wikipedia is 583 ft/lbs muzzle energy but that is out of only a 4" barrel, maybe even a revolver.

Don't know how powerful a hot .357 load through a continuous 16" barrel will be, but it looks doable.

Killed a lot of deer with my 77/44 with 240g hornady handloads.

My first deer gun was a Marlin lever in .44mag. Used to hand load 180gr projectiles ahead of Blue Dot powder. Hot load, traveling at 1800fps. Very snappy recoil. I could almost, but never quite, clover leaf three rounds at 100m. The .44mag kills way better than the >1000ft/lbs energy rules would suggest. Never lost an animal. Only sold it because the trigger felt like it was about 14lb pull.

I currently have a suppressed Rossi .357mag. Have a box of factory loads and 500 empty cases to start load development. Head shot a goat a couple of weeks back. It died!

Originally Posted by The bomb

Killed a lot of deer with my 77/44 with 240g hornady handloads.

what load did your one like? I need to put together a load for mine

Being from the USA, I'm not sure how large your deer are but my go to rifle is a Ruger .44 Carbine. (This is a long out of production rifle that is a 5 shot semi auto fed by an internal magazine.) I have used this gun on 2 Russian Boar, 6 Black Bear, and over 40 Whitetail Deer. It has never taken more than one shot to put them down at anything under 100 yards (91.44 meters) I do use a different caliber for Mule Deer because the ranges are normally much longer than 100 yards. I would not use it on Brown Bears, Elk or Moose however. Since we can no longer shoot Polar Bears in the USA, it has been a long time for that but I used a .444 Marlin out of a Marlin lever gun for the one and only one I ever bagged.

The black bears were taken with really hot and heavy rounds from Buffalo Bore, which I don't know if you can even buy in NZ.

The .44-40 and black powder works just fine so the .44 Mag and the .357 have to be better. (This was the smallest one; the others were mature animals and I get complete pass throughs with it.) The .44 Magnum will kill as well as a .30/30 at any range you could hit something with one. The .357 Magnum I have not used, but based on my .44-40 experiences, I would be perfectly happy with one.
So the answer is yes. Yes, you can, and yes you should.

i shot a bloody big billy with a 44mag. (300 grain hornady hollowpoint)
dropped it on the spot, projectile was found on the far side of the ribs after causing one hell of a hole. was shot at 50m

So can anyone shed light on what the factory iron sights are set at for the rossi 50 or 100 yards or further ?

Originally Posted by Survy

So can anyone shed light on what the factory iron sights are set at for the rossi 50 or 100 yards or further ?

my 20" rossi 44 mag seems about spot on at 50m

Originally Posted by Tommy

The new ones have a safety on the bolt, and it fucking sucks. Loose, stupid position, and once I take it apart I'm going to throw it far far away. However, it's reasonably smooth out of the box, and I'm giving serious thought to lopping an inch off the mag tube and putting a can on it. Need the hysteria to die down so I can get a few bits in (pic rail for my now unused red dot/s, sights will be a tad obscured with a can. Something like this perhaps: https://store.stevesgunz.com/index.p...products_id=80 )

They state that there will be no shipping outside of the US of A. You'd need to have a willing friend over there to ship it over for you, I suspect.

Originally Posted by 7mmwsm

Why did you have to go and tell me that? I would have been content with a Casull. But now.....

You'll feel the metal butt plate on a Rossi with a .44 mag 240gr @1800 fps. A Casull wouldn't be be much fun for too long, I should imagine. I'd definitely stay home if it was a 460 Rem.

Originally Posted by hotbarrels

My first deer gun was a Marlin lever in .44mag. Used to hand load 180gr projectiles ahead of Blue Dot powder. Hot load, traveling at 1800fps. Very snappy recoil. I could almost, but never quite, clover leaf three rounds at 100m. The .44mag kills way better than the >1000ft/lbs energy rules would suggest. Never lost an animal. Only sold it because the trigger felt like it was about 14lb pull.

I currently have a suppressed Rossi .357mag. Have a box of factory loads and 500 empty cases to start load development. Head shot a goat a couple of weeks back. It died!

Attachment 109774

I’d love a bit more info on how you’ve set that gun up with the can, and who did the work @hotbarrels