A very good friend of mine has an eye problem. He has a wonderfully beautiful custom #1 Ruger in .338 Win. Mag. that he's been using for his deer and whatever hunting for many years, but developed an eye problem, and can't take recoil any more. He took his old Browning 1885 BPCR and rebarreled it to .222, and that's going to be his "deer rifle" from now on, due to his inability to take recoil wihtout it causing him to go blind in all liklihood. His plan is to shoot then in the head or neck, and I have no doubt at all that he'll do very well indeed, and that no deer will either be wounded, or be able to take a single step after he fires.

Another friend grew up literally on the banks of a local blackwater river, and shot his first deer at age 6, and was only 8 the first time dark caught him in the swamp. He's done a lot of cropping for the local farmers, and has shot more deer and wild hogs than most people will SEE in their lifetimes. Many of both have been with the .22 LR. He'd typically keep his gun in his truck, and after work, just cruise through the areas he's been told to police, and sometimes a .22 was all he HAD, so .... that's just what he used.

Deer are really easy to kill IF .... and THAT is the important part .... you just hit them well and use whatever weapon you have within its effective parameters.

IF you use whatever you have EFFECTIVELY and within its effective range, AND hit the deer right, you'll eat some very good venison. If you don't, and it doesn't matter which of these specifications you don't fall within, then you're gonna' have a long tracking job or go hungry.

Deer really are pretty delicate as animals go, but they CAN be tough when it wrong, or with the wrong type of bullets. Keep within a gun's range and power limitations, though, and most anything CAN kill deer cleanly. It's just up to the wielder to us it right.

I've known another guy who used a .222, and he was only a so-so shot, but he got a lot of deer with his 788, though he did have to chase a few due to poor bullet placement.

It's got a LOT more to do with the hunter than the gun when we consider what caliber is "good" for deer. They pretty much ALL are "good," IF used within their parameters and the shots are placed right.