I am going with the 158gr PG and 180gr cast cores cause that what we have been shooting mostly so she could get used to the gun.
i know such notables as Major Doug Wesson, who has taken elk, antelope, and even moose and grizzly bear with this round, all taken with one shot, except the antelope which took 2 shots, but then this antelope was standing at 200 yards distance..... or Sasha Siemel, who took 6 tigers with it...or Walter Sykes, who used the .357 Magnum in 1938 to take an African Wildebeest with one shot. so i guess the .357 Magnum is powerful enough to take deer and hogs with... Now, keep in mind that in 1935 when the .357 Magnum was introduced, it was the most powerful commercial handgun cartridge in the world. And even today it is considered as one of the (if not the) top "man-stoppers" in a handgun cartridge...and compare the weight of an average deer or hog and the weight of an average man......... However, today, with all the much more powerful handgun cartridges out there, and more being introduced every day it seems, the .357 Mag is considered "less than ideal" by many... And, to be honest, with all of the more powerful handgun cartridges out today, the .357 Magnum would not be my first choice for the above named animals, particularly past about 50 yards, but, like the grand old .30-30 Winchester cartridge, it is still out there doing the job it was designed to do when it first appeared those many years ago. In the hands of a competent hand-gunner, the .357 Magnum, loaded with the right bullet, will do the job on any deer or hog that walks.
we met at a animal shelter that i volunteer at and she liked that i loved animals.