How are pellets outside a deers vital area helpful? Seems to me that if my pattern were larger than 12" - 16" I'm wasting precious pellets. How many 000/00 pellets does it take to reliably kill deer cleanly? Just to be on the safe side, maybe 4 or 5? Then there is all that brush in the way and of course distance and the pattern opening up is a consideration. May have some bone to break. I'd rather have a center dense more concentrated pattern than a wide pattern to try to get as many pellets through cover and into the vitals as possible. Pellets in the gut or leg or whizzing through the brush completely missing the deer do no good. In fact, I think I'd work with Number 1 Buck for a close range load. Many more .30 caliber pellets would seem better to me than about half as many .32/.33 caliber pellets.
I prefer 00, all it takes is one pellet to kill a deer and it's not always in the vitals.
