Indy the performance on the older and newer calibers on deer are all about the same. Shot placement is the main thing i dont care if your shooting a 22 mag or 50 cal. I love to deer hunt and i want to make sure that i give the game the respect to have a good clean killing shot. This is the main reason that i shoot alot of target shooting. From of the the things that i have read on here it seems like if you can hit a 6" pie pan at 100 yards you are happy. Well i try to get all of my rifles shooting sub 1" at 100 yards I spend alot of time working on loads, sitting depths of bullets, different bullets, powder, primers, etc. I just love to shoot and want to know what my guns are doing thats why i shoot alot of paper. But the big thing that i still can not understand if your only going to get a shot at a deer from 100 yards or less why do you need anything over a 30-30 or a 35 these guns have proven themselfs over and over. But hey thats just me to each his own.