You don't judge how well a cartridge performs on a good hit but rather how well it will perform on a bad hit. Just because a .22LR will kill a deer doesn't mean that it is a deer gun. I would shoot a deer with a 60gr Partition or a 53gr X bullet out of my .223 but it would not be my deer gun. I have a 7x57, 30-06 and 300 WSM for big game.