I just recieved a ruger 357 from my dad and thought about taking it deer hunting. What would be a good store bought load for whitetails?

Yow,
I am hunting with a 357 too. I did a lot of reading on this caliber and some very good information along with some of my questions about the round are within this site. There are two schools of thought about this round for Deer.
1) Too Small and underpowered
2) great round if placed properly and they all emphasize placed properly.
These folks also agree that a heavy solid cast core type bullet is necessary to carry the energy through the impact to the animal. The biggest problem I have faced is locating these in a factory load. I found two companies that make them, Federal and Corbon. I unfortunately can not find a store shelf that has them. I live in Illionois, and thanks to the Democrats in Chicago, I can't have ammunition shipped to me anymore, so the next best thing I found that was available is the Winchester Partition Gold 180 grain fully jacketed hollowpoint. I hope to have a review of that round on a deer sometime after next weekend
I hope this helps.
Since I am a first time Handgun hunter, I would also like to defer to some of the more experienced members of this fine community. There is a wealth of experience and a great willingness to help here. Good Luck with your new gun and Welcome to the community

I agree with regnets, make sure of your shot placement and if possible use the hard cast from federal or corbon or use the partition gold. I have shot one deer with the partition gold, it was a doe that had been hit by a car but was on her feet but in bad shape, all I had was my 357 black hawk in case I saw a coyote or badger. the shot was about 15 yards and was heart lung shot and it put her down, there was no exit wound and I couldn't say how long she would have stayed up if she was healthy. as a side note the doe was muley that weighed probably a 160-175lbs on the hoof.

thanks for the info. i used to live in jacksonville,ill.
will get a 44 mag. soon I hope.

FYI Yow,
I found the Federal 180 grain cast core bullets at cheaperthandirt.com. If I remember right they were 19.00 for twenty. They also deliver to my house (WooHoo) I should have a box on the doorstep tonight when I get home. Off to the range in the morning, then its 3 hours of windshield time to deer camp! Hopefully I will be able to let you know how they do on the real thing
Anyway I thought I would let you know where to find those bullets I told you about. Good Luck!

A buck a pop for lead, wow! Cheaper than what!? !?

Yow, for what its worth, I think if you can find some factory Winchester Super-X 158 lead SWC you'll be fine. They used to be a gas-check but I don't know if they still are. I took a big whitetail doe with this load and I also took 2 deer with my handload. 170gr Sierra JHC over a stiff load of Winchester ball, and 1 with a heavy load of 2400 and 1 with H110. Talk about flames at dusk! I am guessing all loads performed exactly alike because they all killed the deer that dropped within 40 yards the shot, and I retrieved no bullets. All were in the heart-lung area. Stay within it's range limits, and you'll get your deer. Personally, I would try a shot over 60-75yards maximum-but that's just me!