I set out opening morning this year with just my Taurus Titanium Tracker 6.5". Round about 7am a doe and a huge wall hanger buck show up at my stand. As the buck comes into 30 yards, I sighted for his near shoulder and squeezed off a shot. The shot instantly flipped the buck to his back and he thrashed around and rolled about doing what I thought was nerve kicks. All of his movement came to a halt as I sat there and admired the size of the big buck and thought where this one may fit on the wall. This was a big boy as it rivaled the size of my last year's trophy taken in the same spot at the same time of 244 lbs dressed and 151" green score. After about 5 minutes passed, I got down to take a closer look and to field dress my kill. As I hit the first step down on my ladder, I heard him thrash again. Thinking he was going to need another shot, I spun around and sat back on stand again. As I turned back around, I saw him pushing his way through the brush on his breast bone with his rear legs. I leveled off with my 357 on him again and squeezed off another shot only to hear "CLICK" with no shot. I gave it the SA 2 more times only to hear "CLICK", "CLICK" again. It seems that the cylinder wasn't advancing to a new chamber. Although this was maddening, it really isn't my point. My point would be that even though I hit the animal good and hit it hard, with a 357 more than likely it will take more than one shot on a large deer. This large buck left a good blood trail for 1/2 mile and then it dried up. I searched the area for 2 days to no avail. It was evident that it regained use of its far shoulder but was still not using the near shoulder within the 1/2 mile.
Now with that said, here is the handload that I was shooting. I had a 125 grain HP loaded hot and I chronographed it at a scorching 1700 fps. The 125 grain bullet by all of the ballistic charts would deliver the most energy in this gun. This load also gave me good killing accuracy out at 100 yards. I think the problem was that this bullet delivered an enormous amount of energy in the form of shock and not in penetration hence the animal kicking and rolling while it recovered from the shock of the first bullet.
My friend has the identical gun, and shooting the same handloads on the same morning he dropped a medium sized (150# dressed) 8 point buck in its track with a single shot at 70 yards. He hit the deer in the near shoulder as I did, and the bullet did not pass through.
I wont be loading the 125 grainers for deer anymore, even given the above success story. I am looking to work up a good load using a 158-180 grain bullet that will put the big boys down easier. My gun has been sent back to Taurus with my frustrations noted on the malfunction, and I am hoping that next year has a better outcome. The Taurus Titanium Revolvers are incredible if you havent tried one. I just think I got the problem on as my friend has has no issues with his.
So to answer the original question, Yes a 357 is enough for deer. This is true if it can be shot accurately and bullets placed well, and you have the ability to follow up with accurate shots. I bought the 357 in the Titanium Tracker because I like to shoot alot and it just plain felt good in my hand. If I were to buy a Titanium Taurus just for deer hunting I would opt for the 41 mag that they offer. To put in perspective the power of the 357, it has as much power at the muzzle as my 7mm Rem Mag has left at 1000 yards. Yep, you better make that shot good............
JSF
