Cbeard, by your own admission you don't have experience with them, yet somehow you judge them lacking despite the first hand evidence to the contrary. You're repeating the same baseless wives-tale with nothing but your gut-feeling to back it up.
I challenge your assumption that reports would be skewed to the positive. I believe anyone who lost a deer with a .223 would be shouting from the rooftops how unsuitable the caliber was (of course blaming the caliber, not the shot). The reason they're not is because it WORKS. It's easy to shoot well, and good shots kill deer.
I'd wager (now into MY baseless assumption) that MANY more deer are lost from poor shots from 30-06, 300 WM, etc than are lost by underperforming .223.
