Paging back through this thread, which is tedious at best <g>, the reader will find several hunters who have killed numerous deer with both .223's and larger rounds, and who wrote nice long posts on the subject... TexasRick and Atkinson come to mind, and there's a few more too. Their posts are well written and sum things up pretty well as far as I'm concerned.
For me, a 30-06 is more rifle than I generally want or need for how I hunt and what I hunt. A .223 is less rifle than I want to use for reasons that are simple and easy to understand for anyone not coming at this question with an agenda.
There are compromises with any cartridge. There's a very fertile middle ground in the world of deer cartridges that works very well- for me- and gives me the compromises I choose to accept.
