In my state any Centerfire is legal for deer (stupid). Of course they will all kill a deer but when the event takes place after the hit it could be quite some distance away where you can’t go. My worst experiences have been with 6mm and 243s. Par for the course, the latest happened to 10 year old Landon Harrison and I thought we were going to lose a buck of a lifetime with a perfect shot due to not enough gun a 6mm Remington. Hey it was a 95 grain Hornady SST at 3200 fps, but left almost no blood trail through a snaky Louisiana briar patch. Only 400 yards by providence I found that Buck. It was about 250 pounds and fat which plugged up the sucking chest wound. 6.5 is OK but 7mm/08 is better. I don’t want to hear the cry (shot placement) its a matter of common sense. 7mm/08 to 45-70 Landon who loves his grandfather’s 6mm prefers the 45-70 and he shoots it well. If I have a blood trail I can find a deer but tiny holes don’t help. I wont even talk about varmit bullets and calibers. Most small women and youth hunters can handle a 7mm/08. If you like Cowboy Rifles a 30-30, 357 magnum, 44 magnum and 444 Marlin are just fine within their respective range. The best are always 25-06, 270, 280, 284, 308 and 30-06 and the 45-70 I’ve used all of these and you get DRT…dead right there. The other is the magnum problem, bullets faster than 3000 fps or meat grenade rifles. It might help to study Taylors Knock Out Value (Bear Tooth Bullet site) compare a 243 only with a 30-30 or 7.62×39 and see for yourself. You can figure out your own minimum on deer and find out many magnums aren’t what they are put up to be….pass it on