,357 for Deer?

If you go to the gun forums, there is always the question of whether the .357 magnum is adequate for deer. The answer is always resoundingly yes. Not optimal, perhaps, but adequate. There the difference lies. As in all things about hunting, an adequate cartridge is one where it is used within the envelope that provides enough power and energy to do the job cleanly.

Recently, a buddy, John, emailed me about some success his daughter had using the .357 magnum in a lever gun. I'll let him tell you the story.

I think Rachel feels a .357 carbine is adequate for whitetail deer hunting, under 100 yds. Dec 27, Tuesday morning, she killed a 2.5 yr old 7 pt buck, live weight of 150 lbs. It is her first buck, and the first one I actually called in by grunting. We saw it grunting and chasing a doe thru the palmetto bushes, and when I grunted, the doe turned on her afterburners and left while the buck stopped and started looking for the "intruder". I grunted one more time, and the buck started easing our direction thru the brush. When he got within 40 yds, he slipped out onto the trail to get a better look, and my daughter was ready. Deer was quartering towards us, bullet hit forward on the on-side shoulder, penetrating diagonally thru the right lung, liver, stomach, and ended up just in the muscle in the upper part of the left hind quarter. Yes, nearly 3 ft of penetration from a factory Remington .357 Mag 158 gr soft-point load. I recovered the bullet when we were deboning the meat to grind.

There's a picture below and if you look at the picture, you'll see what I call a swamp forest. Mature trees, a mixed hardwood forest with a few conifers, mainly cypress. However, that forest has a thick undertory of brush and palmetto, which limits vision to 100 yards or less at ground level. This is the country for which a lever carbine shines. Ranges are short.

You're not going to make a 200 yard shot in that tangle. Rachel took that deer at 40 yards and from all indications the rifle was adequate to the task.

Good job, Rachel.