Jerry Lester:
Have you tried 180 gr. XTP?
I have shot some deers with 158 HPXTP/1750 fps - and they have worked fine, but I thought I should try 180 gr..
Why? I don`t know 
The 180g XTP-HP's are definately enough for deer. I've just found that, contrary to some beliefs, hydrostatic shock "does" play a part in quicker kills. Actually what I'm calling quicker kills is how fast a deer hits the ground for good. I've killed a LOT of deer with the 357 magnum fired from rifles, and I've consistently observed that with all other factors being relatively equal, a bullet impacting a deer at say 1500 fps tends to drop them quicker than the same bullet impacting at 1200 fps. Of course there are a lot of variables that also effect the out come, but I've observed this enough to be confident that a little extra impact velocity aids enough to be helpfull.
I've never been one to base my beliefs on what I've read, or what I've attempted to make myself believe from other peoples experiences. I've Personally experienced everything with the 357 on deer from absolute bullet failure to terminal performance so good that a bazooka wouldn't have killed it any quicker, with the majority of instances falling in the middle somewhere. I've accumulated what I know, and stand firm on from killing deer well into the 3 digits at this point with a 357 magnum, not to mention the hoards the I've witnessed friends shooting, and comparing the results of dozens of load combinations. Honestly, there are numerous loads that'll knock a deer on his butt under the right circumstances. I've even killed them with 38 specials, and 125g SP's. It all depends on the bullets construction, shot angles, and "impact" velocity. Muzzle velocity actually means very little in deciding the out come.
The Remington 158g SP is with out a doubt, THE best deer bullet for the 357 magnum rifle. There are a lot of other bullets that are almost as consistently effective, but none I've tried is 100% as good as this bullet. I don't fully trust "any" HP design for one reason. Not very often, but it only takes once, a HP will catch just the edge of the high ridge bone that runs down the middle of the actual shoulder "blade" just right, and it can deflect so bad that it can result in a raking wound that literaly looks like you slashed a deer with a chain saw. This is a situation that ends with a very messy deer, a long tracking job, and possibly a horribly wounded deer being lost. I'm not talking about shooting him at a sharp angle either, it can happen from almost a dead on straight shot.
The Remington 158g SP's have proven to be the best overall performer on deer for me. It causes decently wide wound channels, busts bones, drives reasonably straight through a deer, penetrates like crazy, and allows a high enough impact velocity to impart a good bit of hydrostatic shock resulting in consistently quick kills. All this, and it's unbelievably accurate in nearly every gun I've run it through. Even the ones that didn't shoot it great shot it plenty good enough for deer hunting.
I have no doubts that a normal hunter could use just about any reasonably constructed bullet in his 357 rifle, and have good results. If that same hunter used that same rifle on just a couple ADC hunts where shooting 5 to 20+ deer in one day was common place, he'd quickly weed out the load combinations that weren't "quite" good enough.
