.357 mag carbine (any brand)

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Since educating myself more and more on hunting (s. TX brush deer n hog) I like the idea of a combo of rifle/side arm of the same cartridge. From what I've read I'm leaning more towards the .357 mag carbine and revolver. Chuckhawks, seems to recommend this carbine for the beginner(which would be me) and since most if not all my shots will be @100 yards max seems it be the perfect cartridge for me. U can shoot .38 specials with it too. So that's two guns and diff. Size ammo. Works for me! Plz. Correct me if might be wrong. .357 mag for whitetail and hog? Will appreciate yalls feed back.
 
It's works for me, I have a .357 lever made by marlin, a ruger blackhawk in .357 and a ruger security six. Works for Tx deer and hogs. When I decided on this combo/trio I ALREADY had the blackhawk. If I was starting from scratch I would lean towards .44 mag. A little more power wouldn't hurt, I don't feel undergunned at all but wouldn't mind a step higher.
 
I'm a revolver guy and I have a Marlin .357mag lever gun.

The .357mag carbine is a terrific & versatile little gun, and the round really comes alive in a rifle. The "same ammo" thing is largely overrated, though, as you'd likely be using different loads for each gun & application anyway.

I do agree with leaning towards a .44mag carbine for the extra power. Or just get a .30-30 if you like lever guns.

BTW, Ruger makes a bolt action .357/.44mag carbine. Worth a look as well.
 
Can't go wrong... I have many 357 revolvers, and two 357 lever guns.. I LOVE THEM... The .357 out of a carbine is no slouch... and with light 38 loads, there is no recoil and darn little noise.. the kids love them.. great teaching tool... can't say enough about them..

I also have a Marlin Lever in 44 mag... it too is one fine deer gun, excellent accuracy... I had it shortened to a 16" barrel, with a 1.5 power Leopold... it IS my truck gun... I carried it at work in the early 80's,( yep matching handgun caliber too..) had more that one burglary suspect go prone to the business end of it... one of the funniest thing I heard was while booking one of those suspects... "Man that cop what arrested me pulled a gun one me what had three barrels!" guest he couldn't count, or thought the Mag Tube and scope were barrels.. hey, it worked, he didn't argue!.. Some folks have issue with the recoil of a 44 mag in a pistol, but in a rifle, it is minor...

If you are not recoil sensitive, the 44 would be a great choice, if you are, then the 357.... Either cartridge in a rifle is not bad at all, pistols a bit different... it all boils down to physics and the old "Horsepower to weight ratio"... for some it can get to be a bit "Sporty"...

For feral hogs and deer at about 100 yds,, your good to go with either.... Javelina, it too will do the job, but they are weird little buggers, just sometimes don't know they are dead yet.. I've hit javelina with a 300 gr 45-70 at 40 yards in a solid lung shot and had the spin and swish their tail like they were stung by a bee, then walk off and fall over a full minute later... I have hit Feral Hogs with a that 44 carbine and had their feet come out from under them, and they were done, shot placement about the same, and the feral hogs were much larger... go figure...
 
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if you're going to be hunting with them, the 44 mag is punchier. If you're just going to be shooting for fun as well, I'd get a 357. The 44mag is stout out of a rifle, and downright unpleasant out of a handgun. But I'm a little recoil sensitive so take that into account. I like 9 better than 45.

Old marlins and newer rossi's are my choices for lever guns. Rossi is a lighter trimmer package for carrying around (especially the 16" 357 carbine), marlin scopes better, typically has better wood and sights, is easier to do an action job on, and takes the 44mag round better.

**stay away from any marlin made in the last few years since remington bought them. You can tell by the REP in an oval stamped on the back of the barrel, on the ejection port side, and the crappy overall fit and finish, and possibly crooked sights. **
 
I had a Winchester 94 in .357 that was a fun little rifle. I really liked the gun and it was very accurate with the Williams peep sight I put on it. I would shoot 125 gr. 357 all day long and recoil was negligible, the 180 gr Buffalo Bores was noticable but not unpleasant.

I didn't shoot it much so I ended up trading it towards my AR. I am wanting another lever gun though, but I will get a .44 this time.
 
With the cost of ammo these days for shooting either .357 or .44Mag it would certainly pay to get into reloading. And when you reload it's super easy to load up recipes that give you your own personal best for recoil and power balance for handgun and carbine.

I've got .357 S&W revolvers in both K and N frame. The K frames I like to run any magnums I put through them at about halfway between the starting and max loads. The big N frame is a giggle with full spec Magnums.

Same with the .44Mag handguns I got recently. Full house is just a hair too much to shoot more than about one cylinder at a time. But when I backed the powder off by about 1/4 down from max the rounds became stout in a fun way without being over the top like with the full house rounds.

And of course since YOU can control the power it's also just as easy to load up .44Mag that is down in "cowboy action" territory and is so soft to shoot that even a recoil sensitive grandma would smile.

All in all I'd say that shftyer1 got it down pat. With the .357 you can't go up much more. With the .44mag the ceiling is higher but you can load down a lot further if you want.

The Rossi Win '92 clone action is a tough one and it results in a pretty light and compact carbine if you get it in the 16 inch barrel. I've got a 20 inch barrel version I use for cowboy action shooting. I've also shot a couple of boxes of .357 reloads out of it as well and it does really well. With that ammo I was hitting the 200 yard gong two out of three times using the basic iron sights and about 6 to 8 inches of holdover with the sights set for the close in cowboy stuff. Recoil with the .357 is still quite mild. Certainly only the most recoil sensitive would not be able to shoot a 92 chambered in .44Mag.

One thing about the Rossi if you go that route. I do find that the '92 action is a bit sensitive to bullet profile. Some SWC reloads I'm just finishing up now tends to stand up instead of chambering. For my next batch of ammo I'm going to switch to basic round nose. With the round nose ammo I can cycle the lever as fast as I'm able and it slips into the chamber like a fish on a wet board. So if you get a '92 clone of any brand be prepared to test out each bullet profile and loading length to find ones which work best.
 
A few years ago while out plinking with my daughter she asked to try our Marlin 1894c 38/357. It since has become her favorite rifle, and after I discovered a hand load using Lil-Gun and 158g Hornaday XTP's it has become even more of a favorite. My main reason for handloading is accuraccy. When I found this Lil-Gun load I was pleased to find it was quite accurate and as a plus it left the barrel at ~1900 fps. If you don't reload check out Buffalo Bore ammo.

http://www.buffalobore.com/index.php?l=product_detail&p=100

They show a 158gr bullet exiting a Marlin 1894c at 2150 fps. That should handle any hunting you do under 100 yards.

These are great field guns, light, handy and quick to point. I've tried different optics and red dots on mine and have settle on a Skinner peep sight.
http://www.skinnersights.com/
 
I've been shooting a .357 Ruger Blackhawk and a Ruger No. 1 in 38/357 for a very long time. They make a great pair. I find that if I shoot heavy loads in that pistol that it shoots plenty hard. It does bark and kick. From the little rifle that .357 comes out with gusto. At normal ranges that 158 grain bullet is a fine hunting round for smallish deer sized game.

Yes, a .44 is a harder shooting round and yes, it's probably a better killer, but if I'm after game that needs more killing that a .357, I take an ancient Marlin 336 in 35 Rem. That's enough gun for nearly everything we run into in this country. Really big bears? It's my 45/70 Ruger No. 1 loaded heavy. That rifle kills at both ends!
 
I own the Marlin lever in .357 and love it. The recoil is next to nothing and it has more than enough range for anything I could want to shoot. I keep it in a soft case in my truck along with a box of ammo.

Have you looked at the ballistics tables for .357 out of a rifle? It has as much energy at 100 yards as it does at the muzzle of a 6" revolver. So if you'd shoot something point blank with your revolver you can hit at range with the rifle and expect the same effect. Closer than 100 yards you'll have even more energy.

Get one. They are amazing weapons and a joy to shoot.
 
I have two Winchester Trappers in .357 and they are great. I just shot them last week and had a blast. They are decently powerful, accurate, and handy. I would look for an older Marlin, Winchester, or the new Ruger .357/77. I love Marlins to death, but the company is having some growing pains right now to say the least. I wish Winchester would make a American Made 94 again; they are selling for high dollars on the web. I find it hard to believe they can't produce them for a profit. Rossi seem OK, but they seem to be a love em/hate em type of deal. Lots of folks get great rifles and really enjoy them, while others seem to get lemons.

Good luck with whatever you choose,

Matt

Forgot to add that I emailed Mossberg last week to ask for a pistol caliber levergun. They have not contacted me back, but if enough of us ask we may get a decent US made levergun to fit our needs.
 
While it's very true what Omnvore says about the .44Spl from all I've read it's harder to find and when you do often even more expensive than .44Mag.

THis is where reloading shines as you can standarize on one case, .44mag, and load it easily down to .44Spl power levels. One type of more readily found brass means less headaches at the press by not finding out the hard way that a mag snuck into the spl bucket or vice versa.
 
I got the .357 lever gun bug a couple months ago and finally found a Marlin 1894C on gunbroker. It should be here early next week.

I have a question for those of you that have a Marlin .357. From what I read, the top of the receiver is tapped for conventional scope mounts. However, I do not want to put a magnified scope on the gun. I want to put a red dot on it. I believe I would have to install a one piece base of some sort on top of the receiver. What base should I use that fits the pre-drilled holes on the receiver?

Thanks.
 
You can install a one piece base and then mount to that or Burris makes a mount for the fastfire that is pretty neat.

I only cut the one piece base in two and only mounted the front portion with the red dot on top of that.
 
Wow thanks for the feedback guys. nothing but positive. Some other forums would've laughed me out of them for saying the words .357 mag carbine and hunting in the same sentence.
 
I would go with a .45 Colt (if you reload) in a Ruger Super Blackhawk Hunter and a 16" Winchester Trapper Carbine.

With standard pressure loads the .45 Colt shoot through a deer at 100 yards. With heavy "Ruger Only" loads, bison aren't out of the question. And that's with the 7-1/2" Revolver -- but you should be very confident with your shooting skills before going hunting with a revolver.

Things only get better with the .45 Colt from a 16" barrel. There's no real benefit to going beyond a 16" barrel. The "Ruger Only" will be safe in modern lever actions that are built on the same frame as a .44 Mag.

If you don't reload, I'd go with the .44 Mag.

If you don't reload, I'd stay away from the .357 Mag for 100 yard hunting, unless you're going to buy (expensive) ammo from Buffalo Bore. If you reload, you can get the job done.
 
kludge said:
If you don't reload, I'd stay away from the .357 Mag for 100 yard hunting, unless you're going to buy (expensive) ammo from Buffalo Bore. If you reload, you can get the job done.
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I have to disagree. There is no need to reload to hunt with a .357 lever rifle. Sure, ammo selection is needed. You can't just grab any old box of fmj and expect to do well. But there are multiple manufacturers of decent ammo.

The .357 has way more energy than several of the popular rounds people were using to harvest deer 100 years ago. As long as you do a little research and get a decent brand with good bullet construction and are realistic in your expectations regarding range then you should be fine.

Which isn't to say you couldn't reload for it. Then you would really open up some options. I just don't think it's necessary.
 
Gosh, I just saw two older Win. 94's in a pawn shop for about $350. They were worn, but wear on an old 94, I think, adds.
 
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