5” revolvers
tree stand in woods
pic one-
.357 magnum any JHP, max load of H110 or 2400
or
.44magnum 250gr Keith at 1050fps
https://i.imgur.com/M7FpNxu.jpg
Printable View
5” revolvers
tree stand in woods
pic one-
.357 magnum any JHP, max load of H110 or 2400
or
.44magnum 250gr Keith at 1050fps
https://i.imgur.com/M7FpNxu.jpg
I would go with the .44 for non scientific reasons. My hunting handguns are all .44's and they work for me. I have shot them enough that I know that where the sights are there will be a hole. That big RNFP is a comfort to me. Maybe I am set in my ways but I don't really want to break new ground when I have a system that works. No disrespect to those who have success with .357.
The 44 Rem Mag is first rate.
with a well placed shot either will do.. with that said If you can control the 44 as good as the 357 I would go 44 ..
Bigger holes are better (when shooting game)
I've killed deer both ways, both will work just fine.
Whichever one you can put in a kill zone at your longest shot 100% of the time. I would prefer the question being a 160-180 wfn instead of a jacketed bullet but I recognize that they will kill whitetail. The mild 44 is going to be easier to cut, trim and give you less bloodshot meat if that is your main concern. If you are paying somebody to process it for sausage it doesn't matter. If you are scraping bones to feed your family it does.
"The bigger the hole, the quicker the boat sinks "
Big is better and I have taken deer with the .357.
Starting out get the .44 it is bigger without expanding
Elmer Keith addressed this in "Sixguns". He says 44.
For me it’s always been 44, only other pistol cartridge I’ve taken a deer with is .45 acp but I just been bitten by the 357 max bug so I’ll see how that goes next fall!
I like both.... but never could get as good of acc with jacketed as cast in a 357.The only JB in 44 that rivals/equals a 429421 in "my" guns is a 180g XTP. Which does have hunting applications for smaller cull deer where exits may cause issue.So by process of elimination,for me..... make it the 429421.
bigger cal bigger hole
hit em with either in the rite place
and they stop being
I have a feeling one is much louder than the other. Consider this......
When we're talking about the relatively slow velocities of handgun rounds, I would go with the larger.
.44 all the way for me. A 240 grain bullet moving at 1,000 fps+ will kill anything in the lower 48 with ease.
I have both and love both, but for medium and large game, give me the .44. Every single time.
I have experience with both calibers from a rifle. Hot 357 kills deer and mild 44 mag kills deer. What more can you ask for? One thing I will say about mild 44 is that I appreciate that the report is not as harsh.
44 all day long. Bullet size is the biggest variable in effectiveness on game. Handgun velocitys just don't have the hydrostatic shock and accompanying larger wound channel that high velocity rifles give. A cast bullet in a handgun will penetrate deap and with a decent metplat do enough damage. They gain killing power with a longer wound channel vs a shorter more violent wound channel. I killed one bison with a 44 mag loaded with a 250 kieth at a 1000fps and it was actually one of the quickest kills we have seen on bison. It took one step and fell over dead. Luck? maybe. Ive shot them with 475s and 500s and watched them continue to eat till they realized they were dead. One thing for sure is id NEVER take a shot on a 1000 lb animal with ANY load in a 357. Especially a jacketed bullet load. I wouldn't probably go intentionaly out with a 44 special level load for a bison but the opportunity presented itself and at the time we were pig hunting so its the gun I had with me. That said I knew for sure that that load and bullet would penetrate into the vitals as it did. It actually went through the shoulder bone on the near side and came out right behind the shoulder on the far side. I wouldn't bet a plugged nickle a 357 loaded with jacketed bullets would even get through the shoulder bone of a 1000 lb animal.
With good placement I doubt you will see much difference in distance traveled after the shot.
The hot 357 may/may not give you a few more yds of a flatter trajectory.
I quit hunting with my 357 because of the noise. I can shoot that 44 load without earplugs.
Both will handle MO Whitetail just fine.
Lately I have been going heavy/subsonic with most everything. Don't have a .44 Mag, but my 11.5 mm .45 Colt is bigger, lower pressure, and better than the sedate .44 mag in every respect. I have a lot of .357s and generally shoot 170 to 180 grain at around 1050 fps. You do not need a hot .357 to kill a deer. You need a large meplat. Lead Bullets Technology.
I agree that either will do the job. But all else being equal, bigger = better.
Bigger hole, more damage, more blood, more organ damage, better blood trail, and all that means the deer stops quicker.
Assuming as always that you can put it where it needs to go.
Or you could do both, give us all the details for each one shot. How far the shot was, where it hit, how far the deer moved from point of bullet impact. How quick it died, you know all that good stuff.
"Feed Me"
Or not.
Besides the bigger hole - faster kill advantage of the 44, when the 44 magnum is loaded to its potential it is effective at a longer range.
The 44 load mentioned is over 1,000fps. With an alloy of around 30 to 1 that should put a deer right down on the spot from a tree stand. Gp
They will both work, the 44 load is easier for me to shoot well.And not so LOUD! I like that it works even without expansion too.
I agree with Jmort, you don't need hot in either with a WFN.
Over fifty with the .357mag and about a dozen with the 44mag. The only deer I ever lost with a handgun was with the 44mag. Reason? I made a bad shot that time. Either one will be effective when the bullet is put on target. My preference is the .357mag simply because I shoot it a lot more and really like the cartridge. It all comes down to where you hit, not what you hit it with. My preferred load is a 158g Hornady XTP over a max charge of WW296. Second preferred load is a 180g Hornady XTP over a full charge of WW296. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
44, slow and devastating.
I voted .44, but ONLY because you said you wanted to use a cast .44 or a JACKETED HP .357. If both were cast SWC/WFN or anything else with a decent meplat, I would say it doesn't really matter, as it's the placement that matters. I just have a hard time trusting a lot of .357 Mag jacketed HPs to penetrate as much as you may need out in the field. The penetration concerns go away with cast SWC, as I have taken enough deer and a lot of hogs with both, and more with the .357, so have full faith in both. Now I know some above mentioned bison, and other game bigger than deer, but the OP specifically said deer, so while I would definitely prefer a .44 over a .357 for penetration purposes on bison, it just doesn't matter when we're talking about deer/hog size game. So if the OP is willing to change the bullet choice to using cast in both calibers, I would say just go with whichever you shoot best. Both are great options.
Now the references to the louder muzzle blast with a hot .357 or a mild .44 are very valid. If you load both to similar pressures, that concern does away, but I'm one of those who doesn't think we need to load anything with max loads to achieve our goals.
Well, since the only choices were .357 Mag and . 44 Mag. I go with the .44 Mag. However, I would actually prefer the .41 Mag and a good 250 gr LFN at about 1100 to 1200 over the others. That's just me, always bucking the "norm"!!
I'd take a warm 44 special over a hot 357 mag. .44 is just a great caliber in general.
Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk
Size doesn't matter if you don't hit the mark. Accuracy first!
Only have only used 44 mag. which of course works and very well. It would be hard to grab a .357 when I have see with my own hands and eyes how efficient a 44 can be. Hearing a loud whoop when it hits at 100 yards is devistating.
I've killed a truckload of deer with both calibers and loads. My preferred load to hunt with nowdays? A 255 grain PB SWC in front of 9 grains of Unique for 2" groups and 1050 fps. Kills even the biggest of buck's dead.
Either will work, and the Deer won't care as long as you place the shot right.
I've gotten deer with both the .357 and the .44 mag and have no complaints with either. No lost animals or having to hunt one all over again after the shot. I agree with the comments about using plenty of meplat. With little or no expansion, a large meplat will still get the job done with the temporary wound channel tissue disruption. As a young tyro, having been spellbound by gun-rag rhetoric about the need for crack-of-doom power, jacketed soft points and blistering velocities, I succeeded in generating a lot of bone splinters and jellied meat, but then I wised up. No more cantaloupe-sized blown out shoulders or flanks with a .30-06. For some years and a considerable number of deer, the Lyman 429215 cast of WW's coming out of my Super Blackhawk at 1100-1200fps cut a cookie-cutter hole going in and out and punched through bone the same way. Only once did it fail to exit. On a quartering shot it was just under the skin on the far side. Between .357 and .44, I'm more comfortable with the bigger hole. The only failure I had with the .357 was having taken a shot at a deer 20 yards away and incredibly, it looked at me and moseyed into the brush. I tried to quietly lever in another, but at the first click the lot of them beat cheeks for the next county. It turns out the factory loaded 158gr JHP struck a 2" sapling squarely on center about 5 feet up and failed to penetrate. I hadn't noticed the sapling before, but there it was, with a bullet hole on one side and a bulge on the other. Whippy and tough enough to absorb the energy, I suppose. Once I got over my consternation at failing to get a deer right there in front of me I started looking into loading the .357 to full 1935 power levels for serious tasks.
Bullet expansion is not guaranteed. Its purpose is to make the bullet wider and hopefully improve its ability to damage vital organs and blood supplies. Why not start with something that is already larger?
Good morning
Bigger holes are always better !
Heavier bullets always penetrate farther !
Mike in Peru for 3 weeks more
"It turns out the factory loaded 158gr JHP struck a 2" sapling squarely on center about 5 feet up and failed to penetrate."
I can show you a couple of trees on our land that jumped in front of arrows to save deer. You can't help but admire such acts of self sacrifice.
It is stupid a comparison.
A 180 grain WFN in .357 mag at subsonic speed, say 1,000 fps will easily kill any deer and shoot through and through, two holes. Any hollow point will not come close penetration-wise to a WFN or WLN. Take a .300 Winchester Magnum with a soft point or hollow point and a 180 grain .357 WFN will crush it penetration wise. Let's keep it real.
Dunno, Jmort--internal and external ballistics is a pretty exact science, but terminal ballistics remains a poorly-understood art form. The bullet tech is better than it was 50 years ago, but I don't try to predict terminal performance. My large-critter hunting gets done primarily with castings put up as Bruce B Soft Points, either SWC or round flatnose form. Jackrabbits through coyotes, I have yet to recover a bullet--they have always gone through-and-through, and the exits are always larger than the entrance wounds. The critters all died, more than half of them DRT. I'm not sure what these indicia prove, but here it is. I do "pass" on marginal shots--even a poultry-stealing coyote deserves a humane demise.
I have to pick the 357 simply because it's my favorite round, either in revolver or carbines.
And yes, max loads always, they didn't invent the thing to be loaded like a 38 spl.