Effective range of the 357 for hunting?

50 yards or less

And I mean less. One thing you can try is to tack up 9" paper plates at random distances in your neck of the woods. Sight your handgun in at 25 yards and then see how you can group on that plate at unknown distances.

Use a premium bullet. The 125 grain HP's will not penetrate reliably enough.

If you have a scope on that revolver, you might add another 25 yards on the top end to start with.
 
You can kill a deer with a pointy stick if it's close enough and you can place the shot precisely enough. If I had to hunt deer with a 357 revolver I'd hunt like it was archery - get close, the closer the better. 50 yards is a realistic max and shorter would be better. Sure it's possible to kill a deer with a 357 handgun, but I'm not interested in what's possible, I'm far more concerned with what's probable and the odds of wounding get higher the farther away you get.

BTW, you should check out what Pythons go for these days before you decide to drag it around the woods hunting.
 
When I used to deer hunt I used to carry a rifle and a K Frame Model 27 S&W in .357 before I got my 8 3/8" Model 29 in .44 Magnum. Shots up to 50/60 yards would be with the revolver and over that with the rifle. A .357 will work fine at this range as the other posters pointed out with the correct bullet and best shot placement.

Bob
 
I wouldn't shoot real heavy loads through my Python. I have nothing against Buffalo Bore ammo, I have some for my 44mag, great stuff.
 
BTW, you should check out what Pythons go for these days before you decide to drag it around the woods hunting.
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....or go putting superhot loads through it. As I understand it, finding parts for, and competent gunsmiths to work on, these guns is getting harder these days.
 
I hunted this year with my 357 Blackhawk, shot a 4-5 year old doe at 60 yards broadside with a load of 13.5 grains 2400 with a 180 grain rim rock hard cast gas check at 1300 fps. it obliterated her close side shoulder and exited the brisket she ran about 40 yards and piled up. the rim rock slug is the one that buffalo bore uses and they are getting 1500 fps or so. google buffalo bore 180 357 you will not find any negative comments. a 357 is a great deer pistol IF the right bullet is used.
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Bingo on the bullet type! Gotta use the full force behind the round for penetration purposes not bleeding off energy in a hallow point. Hard cast, best choice.
 
I have shot several deer with a .357 handgun, none of which were beyond 40 yards. I have always thought that .357 in a handgun is comparable to an average compound bow in effective range. Mostly because of how much penetration suffers as the range increases with .357. As has been stated, just as important as effective range and accuracy when using a .357 is proper bullet choice. Many .357 hollow point bullets are designed for SD/HD or target type shooting and are made for rapid expansion. This inhibits the penetration of the bullet and since there is little or no hydrostatic shock at .357 velocities, the expansion, while making a slightly larger hole, dumps it's energy too soon. I prefer a pass thru with a .357 giving me two holes to bleed out of and thus prefer a JSP or the XTP-FPs as opposed to the standard HPs.
 
The .357 is lethal on deer, with the right load, WAY past distances most hunters would be able to shoot at. You could probably kill a deer at 400 yards with a .357 just based on bullet lethality.
That's just not ethical at all, because no one can reliably hit a deer at that range. So in this case, the shooter's ability controls the range at which you can kill a deer. Slug guns are also lethal past 400 yards, but their ballistics suck (lots of drop and drift) and accuracy isn't precise enough for it to be ethical, which is why most slug guns are limited to 75-125 yards depending on shooter skill.
 
You could probably kill a deer at 400 yards with a .357 just based on bullet lethality.
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A 158gr JSP started at 1300 f/sec has lost nearly 1/2 it's energy by 200 yards .... by 400 yards it'd be somewhere around 100 ft/lbs...... on par with the muzzle energy of a 32ACP ..... and the bullet would not be going fast enough to expand at all .... and the momentum would be so low that it may not penetrate very well .....

Even if you could guarantee a hit to the chest, I would not bet on a shot to the chest with the equivalent of a .32 ACP being lethal enough to kill the animal quickly enough to recover it before the coyotes did ....
 
I figured the poi would rise with the heavier bullets! Yes I've had all his/ my guns appraised for insurance purposes! For those who are interested insuring guns isn't exactly cheap but well worth the money! State Farm allows you to put yur own value on each gun as u are the one paying for the insurance! The model 12 win may have only cost $59 brand new but u can't replace it for that! My 64 gun safe isn't big enuf and I'm not a gambling man! I grew up shooting this gun on occasion but it was not one I was allowed to shoot much! At 50 yards keeping all 6 shots in the middle of a pie plate is pretty easy! Pie plates don't cause alot of buck fever tho!
 
At $2,000 to $2,500 for a really mint one, I would not want mine beat up either.
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Pretty much the way I feel too. I would not choose a Python these days for hunting unless it was in 90% or less condition and I would not shoot hot hunting loads through it either. Enter... S&W and Ruger.....
 
FWIW

I'd never put the top loads described through a Python. When I owned one long ago, it would take loads that locked up my M19. If I owned one today, it would only pose for me in the case.

Kosh said it best - the round that you can place in 8", offhand, 9 out of 10 times determines the range.

As for a load, look at the performance of a 275 LFN 45 Colt @ 1100fps. With a pistol round, you want two holes. What do the people that hunt and guide for a living put on their hips? No 357.
 
What do the people that hunt and guide for a living put on their hips? No 357.
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First off, the OP asked about deer hunting. Most people don't get guides to go deer hunting. If you're talking about guides in places where there are grizzlies, etc., I'm sure both client and guide are carrying bigger guns. This "fallacy" about needing two holes seems to be catching on and actually has little merit on handgun hunting for whitetails. I'd venture to say that most responses are from people who haven't even shot a deer with a handgun, or if they did they might have shot one or two at most. It would be nice to hear from some shooters who have some experience on the subject matter to respond and share actual experiences.
 
I went full circle on bullet selection. This is based on .44 mag, but tried semijacketed HP years ago. Makes devastating wound, bleeds a lot, but is esily stopped or defected by heavy bone. Bullet comes apart. Got lucky that enough frags tore up the lungs. Didn't exit. Then I went the "penetration" route, using hard cast SWC which I never recovered a bullet, as they always exited. Exit hole was as hard to find as entrance. Disappointingly not much bleeding. I never lost one, but they were not easy to track, and usually ran farther than I liked. Then Hornady came out with this XTP bullet, which is hands down, the best pistol deer hunting bullet I've ever used.

Translated into .357, first your dealing with a round that is unlikely to pass all the way through if it hits anything harder than rib. I'd not shoot through the shoulder. I'd limit myself to "bow type shots". I'd want a bullet that opens up well, and stays together on impact so that the organs that bleed a lot will get torn up rather than punctured. If you use a 158gr XTP at revolver velocities, and keep your shots under 50 yards, it will open up exactly as it is supposed to, and it will likely stay in one piece. If as you extend your distance, the bullet will open less, and become more like a roundnose bullet with no exit wound. Yes, a puncture hole through the lungs will kill it just as dead as shredded hole, eventually, but if you hunt in heavy cover, search and recovery might be a real challenge.
 
It would be nice to hear from some shooters who have some experience on the subject matter to respond and share actual experiences.
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Here ya go: 0 (Zero) of 4 (Four) of the 158grHP XTP's (Muzzle velocity of 1250 f/sec) exited the wounded deer that jumped up when I bent over to cut his throat ...... range was about 3 feet.

Everyone I talked to suggested that XTP's were plenty tough enough to make exit wounds at that speed ..... I'd seen them sticking out of the backside of bowling pins- surely deer were not harder than plastic wrapped maple, right?

I got 4 tiny holes in his chest. He did fall back down.
 
This "fallacy" about needing two holes seems to be catching on and actually has little merit on handgun hunting for whitetails.
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I stated I preferred two holes to bleed outta of. I didn't say I needed them. I actually prefer two holes from every weapon I use on deer, whether its one of my handguns, one of my handgun caliber carbines, Hi-power rifles or my bow. Two holes means twice as much blood on the ground. Two holes means a longer wound channel and means you penetrated everything in between those two holes. When shooting from an elevated stand, having a hole on the bottom of the deer may be the only one that gives you a blood trail. When shooting from an elevated stand, there is more shoulder in the way, thus penetration is important, especially with a small bore revolver.

I use the same loads in my .357 carbines as I do in my revolvers. I've found the standard 158 gr XTP-HPs a tad fragile for carbine velocities as well as most other HP bullets. Thus the use of XTP-FPs and JSPs....and yes, this is from actual experience. Same with my .44 mags. For deer, I use JSPs in the revolvers and carbines as opposed to HPs. Again from my experience with them. Just cause my experience is different than yours, does not make mine wrong.:rolleyes:
 
Speaking of hunting guides the owner of Foggy Mountain Guide service in Maine wrote a great article on handgun bear hunting. He had a failure with his Colt Python and switched to a 41 mag Ruger Blackhawk. He mentions that the Python is still is favorite deer handgun.
 
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