357 vs 44 mag looking at buying a new revovler how much more power does the 44 have over the 357.

Question

is it worth buying the 44 over the 357. i am just buying this as a hunting sidarm. but i might use it once or twice for whitetail deer and hogs.

Answer 1

Although the 44 has more energy, They have similar velocity. You will get more control from a 357 or a 45. Stopping power has little to do with it. The better placement you have, will help make the animal bleed out faster.

Answer 2

44m way to go

Answer 3

The difference between the two will depend on the bullet weight for each and the velocity of each.  If you can get that info for each of the calibers in question, you can plug it into this program and find the kinetic energy for each cartridge.  For smoe strange reason YA truncates the attached website.  You will have to add "tics-calculator.html" to the website that I have sent.

  http://www.usacarry.com/index.php/ballis...

Answer 4

.44 mag = 1,200 ft/lbs of energy

.357 mag = 580 ft/lbs of energy

In conclusion, a lot.

Answer 5

A squid load .44 magnum ( 1000 fps ) generates more energy than any .357 loads.  I would consider the .357 to be marginal  for hunting deer and hogs, where as the .44 is enough gun to do more than those animal you mentioned.  I have hand loads in my .44 that are 310 grain hard cast lead that exit a 7.5 inch Ruger at 1350 fps and generate more power at 100 yards than a 357 at the muzzle.  .  Whether you like double action or single action revolvers, invest in a Ruger for the strength.  

Answer 6

I hunt with a Ruger .44. I also hunt with a Marlin lever in .44

To those who think a 44 is too much, you are nuts!!! The .357 is a great caliber, but it is not as versitile as the 44.

I reload a 300 grain hard cast bullet, that I cast myself, and push 1870fps out of my Marlin, and 1500 out of my 9" Ruger.

If you dont want all that power, then load down, or use .44 special if you dont reload.

The only reason I would ever buy a .375, is for defence. In a full size gun, Smith and Wesson Makes an 8 shot .357. Its awsome. But if you want to cleenly kill a nice deer, or hogs, shoot 44 mag.

Todays modern revolvers, and or lever guns are made to take pressures that guns of old would not. A .44 can be loaded to hunt bear!

If you want more info on the potential of the .44, visit Buffalo Bore Amuniton's web site, or Grizzley Ammunition web site.

Buffalo Bore is known for hunting ammo, and gives speeds of bullets through real guns, not test barrels. Check out the .357, and the .44. You will see how much a .44 can do.

Dont get me wrong, both will do, but the .44 is still the most versitile hunting habdgun in america. It is powerfull enough to kill just about everything. It is no where near the big .500, but it is all you need.

Good luck.

Answer 7

44 Mag has enough power that most everybody that buys one...shoots it a few times..and then puts it away. Except when they get it out to watch someone else shoot it, so they can laugh at how silly they look.

Answer 8

watch the movie dirty harry

Answer 9

With handguns, it isn't so much about power as it is the hole you put in the game. 44 Magnum, or even hot 44 Special, will have a notably better result than 357 on deer or hogs.

Answer 10

Q: 357 vs 44 mag looking at buying a new revovler how much more power does the 44 have over the 357.

A: How much more power does the .44 have over the .357???  BUNCH, but the .357 Magnum is still a better manstopper.  Why?  Because you can only kill something 'so dead.'  Anything more is an overkill.  The 125 grain semi-jacketed hollow-point .357 Magnum fired out of a 4" barrel combines just the right force, bullet diameter, penetration, foot pounds of energy and trauma to terminate hostilities.  Anything more than that results in over-penetration and it becomes counter-productive.  On the other hand the .44 Magnum is the superior choice when dealing with 4-legged predators such as bear and other big, heavy-boned and mean critters.

H

Answer 11

Everyone seems to be voting for the 44 magnum, so I will go with the 357 mag.  The 357 has a wider range of bullet offerings.  You can shoot everything from 38 Speicals, 38 +P, 38 +P+, and all of the .357 loads from 110 grains up to 170 grain bullets.  Ammo is more reasonably priced and I find that the 38 caliber guns are more accurate than the 44 caliber handguns.  When it comes to hunting with a handgun, shot placement is what counts the most.

Answer 12

A bunch, like the other poster said, in foot pounds energy the 44 mag beats the tar out of the 9mm.

Answer 13

The .44 has too much power compared to the .357.  I've shot both over the years and decided the .44 was more trouble than it was worth. You need to burn several dozen rounds a month to get used to the recoil, the .357 is manageable with just a few days of practice.  I'm a large sized man but the .44 was more than I care to handle.  

Answer 14

http://www.gunsandammomag.com/ballistics...

Go to the link above and you can see for yourself.  .44 has 3 times more muzzle energy than a .357.  At 100 yards the .44 still has over 2 times the energy that a .357 has at 50 yrds.    My opinion a .357 is a little light for the game you are interested in harvesting.  Not to mention the hole size.  What would Dirty Harry say?