For deer hunting, 357 Mag 185 grain Beartooth with 16 grains of H110 moving at 1400 fps out of a S & W 686 with 6" barell,(Marshals Heavey Hunting Load) what would be a maximum safe range?

Thanks,

Geoff Massa

Personally, with any .357Mag its shot placement and within 100yards with a scope or even less. Most people you talk to will say 50-75 yards iron sights. Remember that your front sight blade at around 100 yards covers around 6". Thats about the size of your vital shot. So, iron sights around 50-75, scoped 100 yards. The .357 even loaded hot is just not a knock down round, but with good shot placement it hits them like a lightning bolt. Those LBT rounds will penetrate deep due to the small diameter, but due to that same physical attribute, if not through the heart or neck the deer might just give a heck of a good run before the lungs fill with blood or if gut shot, it wold probably be lost.

For deer hunting, 357 Mag 185 grain Beartooth with 16 grains of H110 moving at 1400 fps out of a S & W 686 with 6" barell,(Marshals Heavey Hunting Load) what would be a maximum safe range?

Thanks,

Geoff Massa

How far away can yu put 6 rounds into an 8" paper plate (good argument for 6"...but we'll stick with 8")...field shooting, not benchrest.

Soory Guys,

I should have said a scoped pistol. If the shooter does the work he should, with a broad side shot, how far is this cartrige effective?

Geoff

Soory Guys,

I should have said a scoped pistol. If the shooter does the work he should, with a broad side shot, how far is this cartrige effective?

Geoff


I'll go with brushedchrome's resonce...up to 100yards it should do the trick. Believe it could do it farther away, but from a field posision, accuracy (even scoped) would still limit to about that range.

Yep. 100 yards scoped. With wind blowing over 5 mph, expect the bullet to drift at those ranges. If I were heck bent on hunting with a .357 within 100 yards with a scoped handgun, I would make sure that I could hit a 6" taget at any angle, from any range within the 100 yards with it. Then I would go out and fill my freezer. I personally am going out with a custom Reeder .510GNR iron sights. They straight up say that its only good within 60-70 yards with iron sights. This is a round that you can aim for the shoulders with because it will blow the shoulder blades into shrapnel and shred the vitals. This is a true .510 caliber with plenty of power to kill any game on the planet within 100 yards scoped

Been handgun hunting for a bunch of years, got to agree with ribbonstone, shoot only as far as you can keep the shots inside the six inch circle.

I much prefer a 41 or 44 mag for deer and bear hunting. Even with the loads your talking about energy is on the marginal side for a hundred yard shot.

Gotta go with ribbonstone on this, how far can you effectively keep all six on a paper plate, with the scope, and with out, just in case. Les

Guess I'm the "hard core" guy...has to be five-for-five. Idea is that you hunt no farther than your worst case...huting as if your best case is the norm just promtes dissapointment (both yours and the other handgun hunerx)/

Guess I'm unusually hardcore..want 2 rounds from brased sitting...two from braced standing...and two off hand. If those 6 rounds stay on a typical pick-nick paper plate, tha'ts your range.

Huh, thats funny. I could swear that I brought up all of these points.

Huh, thats funny. I could swear that I brought up all of these points.

Good points..and worth restating.

In suport of hndgun hunters, they are MORE likely to practice at least some of the time off hand. Rifle hunters seem less likely (just watch the firing line at most rifle ranges).

If you are shooting free hand then its all on you but from a rest then I would say not over 50 yrds with a 6" brl. You have more than enough knock down power with the 357 and bullit placement will make sure it won't get up again. How close can you let the Deer get to you befor you pull the trigger? Go Buck Feaver! ;) Guy
For deer hunting, 357 Mag 185 grain Beartooth with 16 grains of H110 moving at 1400 fps out of a S & W 686 with 6" barell,(Marshals Heavey Hunting Load) what would be a maximum safe range?

Thanks,

Geoff Massa