first congrats on a real nice mule deer buck!and yeah, my brother-in-law has used a 357 mag marlin carbine too deer hunt for decades,
its lethal if the shots well placed as you found out, but Im rather sure the extra barrel length helps velocity
my brother-in laws hunted deer and hogs for many years with his, loads a 158 grain jacketed or 170 grain hard cast over a stiff load of BLUE DOT OR H110 POWDER
he prefers the 170 hard cast nei bullet,
having the skill to do so with a hand gun at 60-70 yards is impressive and far from common,
http://www.handloads.com/loaddata/d...ype=Handgun&Order=Powder&Source=http://www.neihandtools.com/catalog/index.html