357 magnum carbine bullet selection?

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Deja vu

New member
As many of you may know I hunt alot with my Marlin 357 magnum. I love the gun but over time my bullet choices have changed a great deal. When I was a kid my dad had me use 158 grain bullets for deer. Once I was old enough to be out on my own I switched to 180 grain bullets. Over time I migrated back to 158 grain bullets. Recently I have been tinkering with hunting with 140 grain hornady bullets (not leverevolution).

Any way my question is this? If you where to hunt Medium game with a 357 magnum carbine what bullet weight would you use?
 
load

Have you thought about using a hard cast lead bullet? A keith type 150-ish grain bullet design going about 1100-1200 fps is great for producing large wound channels.
 
After two years of working up cast loads for my Rossi 92 .357 magnum. I now have a all around load that works great. It's from Accurate molds, #357158V. It's a WFN at about 156gr dropped, sized .358" with 13.5gr of 2400 powder. MV about 1550 fps out of my 20 barrel, with no leading. 3 moa at 100yds. Drops deer easily out to 100yds or so. I tried a cast Keith type SWC but It wouldn't work in the action very well, and accuracy was subpar.
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I've shot over fifty deer with the 357mag in a handgun and seven or eight with a Marlin lever 357. In a handgun the 158g XTP HP wins hands down. In the rifle it's still a good choice but with the extra barrel length and gain in velocity, the 180 is perhaps an even better choice. However, deer aren't that hard to kill so it probably comes down to which one shoots the best out of your particular gun. Lately I've been playing with a 357max in a Low Wall and I've tried a lot of different bullets and loads so far. My best accuracy has been with the 158g XTP's so I'll probably give them a try on a whitetail this season just to see what happens. It's devastating on woodchucks and coons.
 
varied

For a long time, till I started having a bit of trouble with peeps/short barrels, and 50 yr+ eyes, a Marlin .357 carbine was my favorite woods and knockabout rifle. Never killed a deer with one, but not for lack of trying. Deer never showed when I had the little Marlin along is all. Shot a good bit of other stuff though. Was all over the map in bullet weight and speed. Screaming 125 JHP, .38 110'+p+, lead 158 SWC loaded down, 160 half jackets full house, some 95 JHP (abysmal), even .38 WC.

Today, the Marlin is zeroed with 158 JHP, a reload equating factory velocities. The bullet weight is easy to find, and buy in bulk, and the Rems I an currently loading feed well. My experimenting days are over.

I used to comment, "no white line spacers, no scopes on your lever carbine". I still detest spacers. But the little marlin may get a 2.5x Leupold.
 
I am running a 140 grain XTP right at 2000 fps from a 16" Rossi 92. I intend to shoot a deer with it this fall and will treat it like a 55 grain .223 in that regard.
 
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Bullets for the .357 Carbine? Stick to the 158s or heavier for deer hunting. The 180s are good, provided they feed. Not everything does.

Some of the carbines don't feed SWC very well. Others don't seem to mind much.

Stay away from the 125gr and other light bullets for deer. These bullets are optimized for use at handgun velocities, and the extra 500fps or so you can get from a carbine barrel really sends them into overdrive. They open explosively, and penetration is seriously reduced. Think varmint bullet.

The extra speed from the carbine does not seem to affect the 158gr (and heavier) as much. They generally stay within the expected performance range.

Some rifles and some bullets simply don't work well together. It may be accuracy, or feeding, or even both, but not every gun loves everything.

A friend got some 210gr LRN, and found that, seated normally, they were too long to work through the action from the magazine. You might find a 180 like that, or you might not. Test a small batch, before you buy in bulk.
 
When I was shooting 180 grain bullets I generally shot cast bullets. I have had good luck with them.

The reason I have been shooting the 140 grain bullets recently is that they seem to shoot very accurately in my marlin. They also go very fast (about 2175 FPS over Power Pro 300MP)
 
My favorite load for my 77/357 for deer is the Sierra 158gr JSP with 15.7gr of H110 @1.590" with a firm crimp. Very accurate out to 100yds and leaves an excellent wound cavity. I have loaded lots of different bullets for this gun including lead but this one so far does the best job. My 8yr old bagged his first deer last year with it.
 
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