Alain,

Your reasoning makes perfectly good sense to me. As far as I know, your choices are lever actions by Marlin (M1894) or Rossi (M92) or various single shot rifles - some like a single shot break-open shotgun and some like a T/C (sort of like a ss shotgun, but with a hammer).

If you do your part, you should be able to cleanly take small deer / chamois / small feral hogs at 100m with any of those. The velocity of 357 mag is markedly faster from a carbine barrel (short rifle barrel) than from a revolver. I have little doubt that an expert hunter could take larger deer with a 357 carbine, but he/she would probably stalk very close and reject less than perfect opportunities. Some would say that 357 is a little underpowered for deer, but I believe that it can do the job if you respect the limitations of your abilities and ammunition.

My suggestion is go ahead and get a 357 carbine - they are fun to shoot (lever actions, anyway). Put a good aperture sight on the rear or a low-powered telescopic sight and go have fun at the range. Shoot against yourself - pistol VS carbine - and I bet your pistol shooting will also get even better.

HTH,

Tom