Nodak Outdoors Hunting & Fishing Forums

[ohio]

my dad had a .357 mag that he gave to me it is about 4 or 5 years old and it has a 8'' barrel on it......is this a good deer gun and would it hurt to put a scope on it.....what range am i lookinm at any better than a slug gun?

[Remington 7400]

With iron sights its a solid 30 yard killer, with a scope about 50 or 60 yards would be my limit. The .357 will definantly kill deer.

Better than a slug gun? Depends on what type of slug gun you got, a smooth bore shooting traditional "punkin balls" yes, a rifled barrel shotgun shooting sabots, no.

[Gohon]

Where do you get your information. The best slug barrels for sabots have a 1-28 rifled twist. That is pretty much the standard for rifled slug barrels by most manufactures today. The sabots and foster type slugs will both stabilize in these barrels with the sabot being more accurate with a little more range than a foster slug. Either one is a better choice for deer than a .357 magnum though the .357, while being on the light side will take deer out to about 60-70 yards. Open or scope sights only come into play depending on the shooters ability to hit what he is aiming at.

If you are going to be serious about hunting deer with a .357, make sure you select the right round to do the job. Winchester makes a very good 180 grain Partition Gold load that that will work fine. They look like the Hornady HP/XTP but I'm not sure if that is what they are. Out of a 8 inch barrel you should have no problem out to the 70-75 yard range if you can hit what you aim at.

[Remington 7400]

[Gohon]

You can take it anyway you wish. The brief chatter you posted to the OP's question was not accurate and not descriptive enough to make any sense at all, and certainly wasn't helpful to the OP. Besides if you had of paid attention to his post he said SLUG GUN, not shot gun or smooth bore. Your 30 yard limitation on the .357 with open sights is ridiculous. Maybe you can't hit past that mark but most others can. Your statement that the .357 is better than a smoothbore shooting slugs is also ridiculous. Apparently you don't know much about slug guns or you would know they are improvements to them that put their range well out to 125 yards with ease. Yeah........ you can take it anyway you want.

[Remington 7400]

Gohon:

In the short time that I have been a member of this forum, I have encountered quite a few people. For the most part they have been extremely nice and thankful for the advice/help I offered them.

This brings us to you.

Despite what you may think I am not an idiot. I am an avid hunter, shooter, gun collector, handloader, and outdoors man. My father brought me up to knowlegable in the field of firearms. My grandfather served and was wounded in Korea as a tank commander.

I know about guns, and ballistics, and all that other important stuff.

I do not give advise on this forum that I would not follow myself.

Execuse me for being human and making a mistake, where I come from "slug gun" means a shotgun shooting slugs, if we use a rifled barrel we say so.

Apparantly we disagrre on the affective range of weapons. Fine, I'll go by my standards, and you go by yours, but I pity the fool who shoots a deer at 125 yards with a slug gun.

My posts may not be helpful, but you calling me an idiot certianly dosen't help the OP.

I do not claim to be an expert in any field, but I post what I believe to be true, if you disagree with me FINE I DON'T CARE.

[Whelen35]

I have only taken a few deer with the 357 mag. For me, I would only use heavy bullets. 170gr on up to cast 200's. I think the nosler 180 partition is likely the best. Do not try to shoot through a lot of bone. If the deer are of a bit smaller size, then a well placed through the ribs lung shot with a 158gr bullet will make short work of it. It depends on how you hunt and how large the deer. I hunt a lot with handguns, and would never shoot at a running animal. You will also find that a deer shot with a 357 on the average (yes even I have droped them with the 357) will travel a bit further than if shot with something more powerful. Again, I tend to like the bullets heavy, the first deer I shot with a 6 inch 357 and 158gr bullets was hit nicking the onside sholder blade, and lodged inside the knuckel of the offside. It died quickly, but very little blood. The next one shot was with a 170gr hard cast bullet and it went through both sholders. It went about 25yds. And yes that was the shot attempted. With hard cast bullets, you will want to hit a bit of bone to get some "extra" stuff flying around inside. As far as range goes, if you can put it where it needs to go, and with 8 in barrel, if the deer did not know you were there, up to 100yds.

[Gohon]

The only person calling you a idiot is yourself. I never said any such thing.

As for the fool, as you put it for shooting a slug gun to 125 yards...... well I guess Winchester has a bunch of fools working for them. Here is a comment on their latest slug....... "It's phenomenal when you can actually zero a slug gun for 150 yards and be only 2.6 inches low at 175, but those are the ballistics for Winchester's new 385-grain, Partition Gold sabot slug loaded to 2,000 fps in the 3-inch 12-gauge shell." My point and I'll stand by it is you are wrong about your information on slug guns and you gave the OP the wrong advice.

Just because you say it, or think it, doesn't make it correct. The same goes for myself and that is why I at least attempt to check out information before I post it. You do this all the time....... you stated that the .410 was only good to 10 yards for squirrels.......you were wrong. You popped off at mr.trooper about the .223 and the 5.56....... you were wrong and he was correct, and you are wrong about the effective range of shotgun slugs on deer. The .357 in a pistol will take deer but only in the hands of a very skilled hunter with good equipment and properly selected bullets. I load then myself for use in a Marlin lever and have taken a couple deer but even then the range is short and the shot is only on broadside hits. If you are going to get ticked every time someone questions what you write then you are going to be ticked for a very, very long time.

[Remington 7400]

I'll admit that I do not like slug guns and do not stay up to date on the latest slug advances. I'll give you that one.

The thing about the .410 only good to 10 yards was a joke, I really wasen't serious, I thought that was understood.

As for the 5.56 and the .223, On the cover of the Ruger Mini-14 owners manual(I looked at one today, so I know I am right) it says Caliber: .223 Remington (5.56 NATO). So atleast for this rifle .223 and 5.56 are interchangable. Also the M243 SAW (Squad Assualt Weapon) is listed by the army as being .223 caliber. Also when the Lake City Arsenal had a overrun on ammo manufactured for the Military, they sold it as .223 not 5.56.

I am not argueing SAMMI chambers and NATO chambers or the effectiviness of the rounds, I am simply saying that for MOST guns the 2 are interchangable.

Unless of course you have this confused with the 5.56x39 Russian round, in which case 5.56x39 and 5.56x45 are NOT the same chambering.

[mr.trooper]

Gohan, let him go. He will think what he wants regardless.

If anything, Introduce him to OSOK and let him go on his merry way.

[Remington 7400]

[SDHandgunner]

I will try to get this thead back on track once again. To the point of this topic I will say at the onset that I do not and have not hunted nor killed any deer with a Shotgun Slug. As per the accuracy of Shotgun Slugs, I can maybe add a little to that. Several years ago my boss asked me to equip his Shotgun that he used for hunting whitetails with a Mount and Scope. This shotgun was a Remington 870 Express with a smooth bore slug barrel. I ordered a mount and a scope and got everything mounted up when the parts arrived. I then handed my boss the gun and he asked if I could sight it in for him, and I agreed. I set up a target at 50 yards, using the Foster type slugs he provided me with. I got the gun sighted in quite easily and was printing 5 shot groups at 50 yards of 2" (center to center). Now I am not sure if this is normal accuracy or not for a Smooth Bore Slug Barrel or not, but I was kind of impressed considering.

On the other side of the coin, I have done more than my share of target shooting and hunting with a .357 Magnum. Given a Scoped 8" .357 Magnum Revolver, with the ammo it preferred I would expect it to print 1 1/2" to 2" groups at 50 yards from the bench, and have seen a couple that hovered right close to 1" for a cylinder full at 50 yards. I am the type of person that always prefers to shoot from some type of rest, and as such when Handgun Hunting I am always totin a set of crossed shooting sticks. Given a sitting position using the crossed shooting sticks I would feel quite confident that I could hit a Whitetail in the chest at ranges beyond what the .357 Magnum would be considered adequate for.

If I were to hunt again with a Scoped .357 Magnum Revolver I would try to limit my shots to 75 yards, and only then if I was shooting from some type of rest. I think with the RIGHT BULLET and put in the RIGHT PLACE the .357 Magnum should do the job out to 75 yards. As per the RIGHT BULLET I personally would perfer something like a 180gr. Winchester Partition Gold either in the form of Factory Ammo or a good handload. In the .357 Magnum I would want a bullet to expand a little to enduce a little more shok. If on the other hand a heavy Hard Cast SWC was used I would try to place the bullet (like has been said) through the shoulders to break the deer down.

Good luck with your quest, handgun hunting can be and is very rewarding provided you do your homework before going afield (like you are doing in asking questions, but also buy practicing)

Larry

[147 Grain]

Winchester Supreme 180-gr. Partition Gold ammo is tough to beat for a 357 Mag deer load.

[Alaskan Brown Bear Killer]

I shot a deer with a 357, 27 years ago. Shot it right in the middle of the neck with iron sights at 80 yards. I think it was a lucky shot , but it can be done.

[pumah25]

You may know rifles and hanguns but you are very poorly informed on the performance of foster slugs out of a smoothbore barrel. They can be very accurrate at and over 100 yds.