Daughter killed her first deer with a .223 I handloaded with 60 grain partitions.
Broke upper leg bone, and clipped the shoulder on opposite side and exited, little bit of an up-hill shot. Very dead after 50 yd dash in tall grass, did not like no blood trail due to small exit hole
Acquaintance drilled a 100 lb doe straight on with same load. breaking couple vertebrae between shoulders continued on to stop in left hip. It dropped on the spot. Have also seen head/neck shots with 55 gr. v-max bullets work with utter reliability also...
Not a big fan of using such calibers for deer... but a 22 cal centerfire gets it done under IDEAL conditions, with CONTROLLED shot placement.
