When you said "frontal area" I flashed on tip shape. To that end I like a blunt round tip or better yet a flat meplat, and even better a flat meplat with a hollow point. Of course, most of my deer hunting is with cast bullets and such frontal areas are critical for good reliable expansion.
In the world of jacketed bullets, sheesh, just use whatever is engineered to expand at whatever distance/velocity you are impacting the animal, and whatever caliber your heart desires. Dead is dead and the degree of quickness of death depends entirely on where the bullet is placed.
