S&W 686 .357 for hogs? deer?

[coopershooter]

i have a   four inch 686, .357 i load 185gr. g-s, flat nose cast bullets for, I hunt in tight thickets. my personal max range with this pistol is about fifty yards. and as i can rarely see that far where i hunt, can i count on this load to give me good pennatration, from all angles, i like to break a sholder on the way to heart and lungs, as often as i can! and have good knock down power? the swamp is a bad place to do much tracking, so i like to use enough gun, so that if i put the bullet where it goes, the critter goes down! am i asking too much? from a .357? in a pistol?
 i use this load in a rossi carbine, and it,s like a sledge hammer on pigs!
 how much will i give up with a four inch barrel? will it matter at these ranges?
  thank you!

[Graybeard]

No I don't think so. I'd confine shots to the head/neck area only with the gun. Now if the hog is no heavier than say 125 pounds you likely would do OK on more difficult angles but not on a big hog. If you can shoot it well enough to put the bullet where it will hit brain or spine you'll do fine with it at such ranges. But personally I'd not be using it with the expectation of body shots and most especially not on difficult angles.

[coopershooter]

thanks gb!
 thats kinda what i thought, i get real good penatration from the rifle. but i wondered about the pistol.
 thanks

[Zachary]

I agree with GB.  I have seen a medium sized hog (I'd guess it at about 100 pounds)  that was hit on the shoulder with a .357 Mag.  It ran off and we never found it.

Heck, my brother once used my 7mm Rem Mag with 150 power points on a larger hog (250+ pounds).  He also shot it on the shoulder (bad place).  The hog also ran off.  At the site of impact, my brother found chunks of bone and blood, but no hog.  I told my brother to only use premium, heavy for caliber bullets for hogs, but he is not as well versed with rifles and ammo as I am, so he didn't really know what ammo he bought.

I consider a .357 a back-up gun, and even then only when a hog is down and you need a final shot to finish him up.  The problem with hogs is that they have this uncanny ability to come back to life, and when they do, they are mad as heck and can hurt you.  

That's why I personally recommend a .44Mag with 300 grain Hard cast bullets - specifically, I think Federal calls it CastCore.

Zachary

[Jerry Lester]

I can't comment at all on hogs, as I've never been lucky enough to get to shoot one. Only got to hunt'em once, and that was a disaster out at Back Bay in Virginia. "Don't ever go out there"!

For deer, that 357 revolver will work perfectly for the conditions you described. My only difference is that I'm not fond of cast loads for deer in the 357 magnum. I like 158g jacketed soft points better for deer, but if hogs are as mean, and tough as they say, maybe you'd be better with the hard casts.

[Redhawk1]

Sure it will work, and like Graybeard said, shot placement is key.  

[LMM]

And remember if you choose a .41 Mag, .44 Mag, .45 (Long) Colt, .454 Casull, .460 S&W, .500 S&W or frankly any other caliber firearm.........

Shot placement is key!

[Redhawk1]

And remember if you choose a .41 Mag, .44 Mag, .45 (Long) Colt, .454 Casull, .460 S&W, .500 S&W or frankly any other caliber firearm.........

Shot placement is key!

That goes without saying. Anytime someone shoots a handgun or rifle shot placement is key.    What I meant is, with a larger caliber such as a 44 Mag, 454 Casull, 460 Mag or 500 Mag you can make a shoulder shot and know with good bullet construction, you can get good penetration. With a 357 Mag I would not try a shoulder shot, but more of a heart/lung shot.   JMHO

[mbartel]

Problem is this.....to get to the heart-lung area you have to go through the shoulder blade. If you miss the shoulder....you miss the vitals too.  This is what makes the hog seem so tough.  They are no harder to kill than a whitetail...pound for pound.  You just have to know that on a broadside body shot, you need a heavy tough bullet to smash through that shoulder and into the heart-lung area. Below is a link to a hog's anatomy.  It is graphic..... but it demonstrates how the shoulder plate protects the vital area.

http://www.texasboars.com/anatomy.html