I'd probably go with the 7mm mag.
I used to be a .25 fan. I lost a good buck well hit with a .25-'06. I found the carcass a few days later still intact enough to determine entry/exit points. It should have been DRT, or within 40-50 yards anyway, it should not have gone full-steam over a ridge 400 yards away. I lost a lot of confidence in the smaller calibers right there.
Tom
Sounds like you had insufficient bullet performance, not an insufficient cartridge!
Give or take, I guess. I can't argue it one way or the other. I don't know how to tell those apart, two possible variables, just one equation which says "this didn't work."
What I know for sure was the carcass, when the buzzards lead me to it a couple days later, had a nick on a rib on the on-side and what looked to be a 2" diameter gap on the exit side so I presume the bullet expanded. A line between the two should have intersected the aorta. 120 grain partition, just over 3000 fps at the muzzle, 150 yards or a hair less.
I've shot quite a few deer with .25-'06 and especially .257, had a couple other close calls, but that was the only definitely hit deer I ever lost and it left me sorta sick at my stomach.
That was one of two times in the last 30 years I've had to sit down and seriously think about whether I really wanted to keep hunting or give it up.
Tom
