FWIW In the last 60+ years, I've killed more than 200 ungulates, in several states, countries and two continents. With at least 15 different cartridges and who knows how many different bullets. A whole bunch of whitetails were killed with 22cal centerfires...222, 222 rem mag, 22-250 and 22-250AI...most with a 22-250. My late father and son have killed more than a few with 22cal centerfires [along with several other cartdriges] We've used several different bullets, sierra GKs, Hornady, Barnes..but the vast majority were [horrors] Sierra 53gr matchkings. I have a theory [not a drop of true scientific evidence, but certainly a good number of post mortems] If you have ever played contact sports, you likely have had the breath knocked out of you...I mean when you lay on the ground and think I'm dying. You can't breath, can't get a breath. A post mortem on a deer shot in the chest with a 22centerfire reveals almost complete destruction of vital organs..i.e., lungs turned to "soup" heart heavily damaged..it is my theory that the breath is knocked out of the deer and unlike us, the ability to regain breath is gone..While this effect can and does happen with larger calibers, my postmortems suggest that more often the lungs or heart has a hole through it...certainly will cause death, but not always as quickly. The "hole" will and can cause death in several ways, not the least of which is simple drowning in blood. A big exit hole certainly can result in death from simple loss of blood. I'm certainly not suggestion that 22 centerfires are the be all end all, but if you shoot the animal through the chest cavity, the animal is dead and usually right there. They don't do well if you choose to shoot'em in the butt or gut shoot'em..however, my experience with those shots in not too good regardless of cartdrige/caliber. Do I use 22 cal centerfires in the rockies for big mule deer or elk, nope. Do I use em in africa for plains game? nope. But for deer where I can expect good shot angles, reasonable distances, yep, I opine they work very well.
