What ever cartridge is chambers in the firearm I am carrying when I shoot the deer.
Every deer was just as dead as every other when I was done. Poor bullet don't make a cartridge "bad"---- but some men use one and then blame the shell.
I have used some cartridges that were disappointing to me because of bad bullets, but going to a better bullet made the cartridge a real gem. Using good bullets that don't break up and do "weird things' makes most center-fires and muzzle-loaders kill deer just fine.
I don't overthink the cartridges all that much but I do pay attention to the bullets and how well they hold together after they expand. But for my handgun hunting I now use ONLY hard cast bullet that don't expand at all, and all the deer I have killed with them died very quickly and NONE went far after the shots. for 357s 44s and 45s I use LBT or Keith styles, cast hard, and I have never had a single bad experience with any of them.
I shot one mid sized buck with a light bullet from my 7MM Weatherby and had it run about 150 yards and I has a had time finding it. Took me about 1 hour. No exit wound. But with bullets of 150 grain and 175 grains it was electric death on deer.
On the other hand I have killed 7 deer with cast 357 magnum bullets from 6" barreled revolvers now and all of them dropped inside of about 20 yards and the blood trails were very good. All one shot kills too. I killed another 7 with 45 ACPs from both autos and revolvers and again all were clean kills with none of them going over about 309 yards after the shot and with 4 dropping inside about 8 feet. All but one of them was a 1 shot kill and that one exception was a 2 shot kill.
No one is going to say a 357 Revolver or 45 auto is more powerful then a 7MM Weatherby. But the power is not the most important thing.
Bullets are what I pay attention to --far more then cartridges. Bullets are simply tools to make bullet holes. It's the hole that does the killing. I want them to expand and still go clear through and go through fairly straight. If I can have those 2 qualities in a bullet I don't think the brass shell makes a lot of difference.
