Sounds like your talking about the .357 mag not the .357 Rem Maximum that I mentioned. Its more comprable to (or even better than)a 44 mag than a 357 mag IMO. My dad used to have one and considered it accurate to 50 yards free hand but capable of killing a deer to 75 yards with the factory load, 100 yards with custom load & dead rest. He only got rid of it after he injured his wrist (had a contender withthe longbull barrel some 15 years ago or more). Here is a pic, you can tell its a bit bigger than the common 357 mag:


Ridge Runner - your correct about the butstock. Ohio DNR replyed to my email and said if it has a buttsotck its a shouldered riffle not handgun. Oh well.I was hoping I could get handgun as lethal as a shotgun for deer season, but without a buttstock I can tell you my accuracy is 50 yards max. That just wont cut it - I'll look into getting a nice 20-guage perhaps. Thanks for all the discussion though, its nice that its atleast an option to hunt with a handgun here.

FWIW I did a quick ballistics search comparing the .357 mag, max, and 44 mag using the hottest loads:
357 mag 125gr 1450fps 583#
357 max 158gr 1825fps 1168#
44 mag210gr 1495fps 1042#
I dont really know how accurate the info was, just took it from a ballistics chart found with google.