This sums it all up. This year I was forced to hunt in a shotgun area due to time limitations. I had hunted with a shotgun before, but never connected with anything. Hearing other hunters talk that live/hunt shotgun areas for years, I was really leery about using a smooth bore to hunt with. They (Other hunters) made it sound as if it was hard to kill a deer with a RIFLED SHOTGUN, let alone a smooth bore. I shot two deer this year with my old, made in the 30's, H&R, single shot, 12 gauge shot gun. I mean, this gun is UGLY and looks like it came over on the Mayflower. One shot a piece, right where I aimed. It sounded like a free fire zone around my house the first day of deer. The smallest string of shots I heard from one guy was 5. The moral of this story is: If you don't think that small caliber bullets are capable of killing deer, then by all means don't use them. Leave them to hunters that can use them. On the side, in my state a .17 center fire is legal for deer. Any body want to start a thread on that?
