.357 Magnum for Hunting

**burner** · 05-10-2011, 17:49

Gday Gents /Ladies

Have just landed me a Astra .357 Mag 6", Will call it my beginners Gun and want to use it for some Hunting, I have Rifle Hunted, Boring, Am a bow Hunter. Always wanted to do the handgun thing, later I will Upgrade to one of the biger .4X X's or sooner.

As a start I will only be taking Porkers and Small Game, Ie . Springbok, Blesbuck and Impala, maybe just maybe a Kudu, I will Hunt at a maximum range of arround 30 meters, learnt from Bow Hunting to get up really close and personal.

My Question is , would Hornady's 158gr FP XTP ( if i can get them, I am a Hornady Fan, have always been and they have never let me down) be sufficient for this, I have seen a lot of talk about Hard cast lead. So am a bit in the dark

Your comments will be greatly appreciated.

**TStone** · 06-10-2011, 13:25

Several years ago I shot a young fallow deer male (about the size of an impala) with a 4" barelled Astra .357 magnum. I used a handload with a 170 gr cast SWC. The animal was facing me at an angle, penetration was complete with a good wound channel, it ran about 50m before going down, leaving a good blood trail. Range was between 50 and 60 metres.

**mokwepa** · 15-11-2011, 06:00

Morning burner, I too started with a centre fire scoped rifle (too easy) went to traditional muzzle loaders (fun but got bored) tried a recurve bow (my buggerd shoulder said NO!) Went onto a crossbow (too much like a rifle) got a compound bow (very effective and taught me allot) and only now tried a handgun (absolutly LOVE it, I doubt ill use anything else.) Sorry, starting to ramble on.....just wanted to say that people underestimate how much bowhunting can teach you.....patients especially, probably one of the most important things related to handgun hunting (I'm NO expert but this is what I'm learning by experiance).

**carlp** · 15-11-2011, 07:36

bow hunting is something everyone should undertake at a stage, it forces you to consider each shot you make, the distance, the angle, the bone, and the animals behaviour. you dont want to shoot your bow at a impala looking at you!

this whole handgun hunting idea is starting to tickle me!! maybe i shouldnt buy the 243 and go for a handgun

**shark_za** · 15-11-2011, 07:50

To me sitting in a hide with know distances is not hunting, but respect to walk and stalk bow hunters.

A 158gr XTP will do fine.

**mokwepa** · 15-11-2011, 09:33

I agree and unfortunately the majority of people presume that ALL bowhunters ambush from hides or stands. LUCKILY this is not always the case. I don't think that you should purposly limit yourself in terms of your equiptment, and the try to make hunting as easy as possible after that, makes no sense. Burner, I'm happy with my SWC and will stick to them, however I have had poor blood trails using them. If I could aford to order 1000xtp then I would stick to them for medium sized game. I'm a beliver in finding a effective bullet then learning to use it WELL. I like to practise with the bullets/charge that I will use on a hunt. That's my downfall, I practise a lot and earn very little.

---------- Post added at 09:33 ---------- Previous post was at 09:31 ----------

Oh my goodness, the spelling today is terrible.

**burner** · 15-11-2011, 12:47

Hi Guys , thanks for the replies.
And I have to agree, I have never hunted from a hide, IMO hunting from a hide falls into the same category as hunting from the back of a Bakkie, Just not done, the reason for the move to handgun hunting is that pulling Heavy poundage has taken its toll on my shoulder, and is therefore only good for one or 2 accurate shots, in the day I could do 100 lbs, my always poundage was 76 lbs and I could shoot it all day ( used to practice every day around 75 arrows )and this was the weight that my bow performed the best at. Now I am good for around 10 shots ( at 63 ish Lbs) but normally only 2 are worth the while, the rest well id rather not take a chance and risk wounding a animal. It is a pity as I love the bow, but the Handgun will give me the chance to get up close.

And yes the best is a day in the bush and nothing to show.

Well as of now I have the .357 Mag as well as the SBH .44 Mag. just waiting for the licenses, I have however promised the .357 to my son if he does well at school this year, I will still develop my loads for both revolvers. The 158 Cast Flat noses that I have tested in the 357 look good on performance, I am just waiting to purchase a chrony then I will have a better picture, will also be loading the 158 XTP's .I have already Loaded up some 255 SWC's using S221 for the 44 but will keep these until I have the chrony.Would eventually love to try out the 240 and 300 grain XTP's in the .44.

**mokwepa** · 15-11-2011, 14:50

Burner, if I may ask, how many grains of S221 did you use to load up those 255 bullets? What does a tin of S221 cost these days. S265 is just over R400, quite steep.

**burner** · 15-11-2011, 16:08

Hi mokwepa , Jeez that is high Over R400-00 for S265 there, I bought a tin of S265 2 weeks ago for R300-00. S221 I get for R180-00 a tin, quite a difference and you will see with the data that I sent you, you will probably load about 75% more out of a tin of S221.
Cheers

**mokwepa** · 15-11-2011, 19:48

Now that's more like it. The last tin of S265 was from Byleveld in Rustenburg, R405/tin. I will certainly give it a go for that price. Do you have Somchems latest manual? Is S221 listed under .44mag? If not, where can "we" find documented data for S221 in .44 mag, anyone have any ideas?