When I was younger, I shot a bunch of game with the .357 magnum. Everything from ground squirrels to rock chucks to coyotes to mule deer. Started out shooting jacketed hollow points because, well, to my inexperienced mind they seemed like they must be more effective. Being kind of hard headed back then (thank God I got over that...
), it took awhile to figure out they were absolutely the worst possible choice. Many failures to anchor the animal, all due to failures to penetrate adequately. Many of those hollow points just "splatted" on shoulder bones and ribs. Even if they missed all of that, on anything but a straight on broadside shot, they just didn't penetrate deep enough.
Things improved dramatically when I switched to hard cast semi wadcutters of the "Keith" design. These never failed to penetrate, exiting every time on broadside shots, and much of the time on lengthwise shots, at least through smaller animals like coyotes. The problem, though, was they just left too small of a hole to be dependable on anything much bigger than a rock chuck.
When I finally saved enough to get my first .44 mag, things improved dramatically. By then I knew better than to use anything but a hard cast semi wadcutter on game. Results were outstanding, and still are. Full length penetration through critters as big as mulies. Now we're talking...
Remember, too, that as far as defensive guns go, there is a big difference between "killing" and "stopping". A .357 magnum will certainly
kill these animals, no doubt about that. But they will most often run off for some distance before they expire. I had too many times when I was glad to see them run the other way...
The .44 mag does a much better job of putting them down
right now. If something wants to chew your leg, that becomes vastly more important than having them die. Eventually.