Many years ago, I walking to a farmer that lived in apart of the county that had a decent deer population. He casually mentioned that whenever he wanted one to eat, he took his 22 rifle and shot one. Now, I knew it was useless for me to tell him not to shoot them out of season, but I did tell him that he should at least use a bigger cartridge than a 22LR. I saw him sometime later, and he told me that he took my advice and got a bigger rifle, and it killed them a lot better. Fully expecting him to say 30-30, or something similar, I was surprised when he said 22 Magnum.
I know this post is about 260 versus 308, but I think we often overanalyze things, and often come to the conclusion that we need a bigger gun, bigger this, or bigger that. Most any cartridge will kill a deer The whitetail that was the B&C record for years, the Jordan Buck, was killed with a 25-20. As with any species of game, the key is always bullet placement, along with the right bullet. I sold my nephew a 223 rifle for his 6 year old son to use on deer, and he's killed 4 with it, all one shot kills. I'm no fan of the 223 as a deer rifle, but if it will work, then anything bigger will to. 260 or 308, I would think that it wouldn't really matter.
