Gmoney.....yes i have taken deer with a .22 caliber rifle before. Shot them with the .22-250, .223, .222, .22 Hornet and .22 LR (once in a while with .22 shorts). It CAN be done, but as a famous personality once said "a man's got to know his limitations".
Use of a .22 caliber (and to a lesser extent the .24 and .25 calibers) must be done with special attention to bullet design and placement. Things must be "perfect" to work and the shooter must accept that sometimes he will have to pass up shots he could easily make with a heavier caliber. For that reason I think the use of .22 and .24 calibers by young / inexperienced shooters is the wrong way to go. These are more of a tool to be used by an experienced shooter with the judgement to know when to shoot and when to pass. Unfortunately, it is the younger shooters most often given these rifles when something like the 7x57mm or a light loaded .308 would be much safer in inexperienced hands.
A deer just isn't that hard to kill if conditions are right (a cousin once killed a young doe with a .177 caliber pellet rifle) but conditions are often not perfect. Use of very marginal calibers carries with it the responsibility to only shoot when things are "perfect" and pass when they are not.....tough to do when a yound shooter is in the grip of "buck fever".
