Interesting topic alright, especially the people watching aspect of it.
I suspect that a lot of thinking we need a big boomer for big deer it is due to relatively narrow hunting experience. If a hunter hasn't hunted much besides small whitetails he will naturally have an exaggerated perception of larger deer in unfamiliar territory. Or it may be someone whose hunting has been limited to closely guided hunts even if they are in widely different places. I know such a hunter who has some fine trophies, and an astounding ignorance of game and ballistics.
In the first scenario, limited experience with small deer, unfamiliarity magnifies unknown problems. The default solution to hunting unknowns is bigger bore and more powder.
I've been fortunate to kill several monster bodied mule deer in Central BC and see some others killed by friends. Ironically I killed my largest one with a 6mm Rem. shooting 95 grain Nosler Partitions, still hunting in forest at 40 feet. My first shot went through his lungs a bit far back, shooting through a vertical slot in cover, and he ran about 60-70 yards. He paused on the way and I put a second shot into him, unnecessary but I didn't know that for sure.
I'd have preferred to have my 06 and 165's but due to gun work and trading rifles, the 6mm was the only rifle available that day. Pre-digital, no pics. That buck looked long as a stretch limo, deep body, neck an untapered extension of his body for its first half, so bulged out so that he couldn't put his ears all the way back and his huge head looked ridiculously tiny.
I hunt with a friend who shoots nearly everything with his 300 Win mag. and shoots it more accurately than most people can shoot a .22 rimfire. When he got a 22-250 for coyotes, (he'd been shooting them with his .300) he couldn't resist killing some deer and black bears with that, though he is back to the 300 for his all around now.
