ORIGINAL: Stonewall308
I would imagine that the recovery rate is partially related to whether or not the deer goes anywhere after he is shot. Using a round with enough power to put the deer on the ground can't hurt.
I think I am going to aim for the shoulder from now on, especially if the deer is quartering toward me such that the vitals are directly blocked by the shoulder.
Bullets fired from any practical shoulder fired rifle won't themselves have "enough power to put the deer on the ground". The actual force applied to the deer is less than the force you feel from recoil. If you weight 150lbs and your rifle didn't knock you down, the bullet your rifle fired won't literally knock down a 150lb deer. Deer go down because of the shock trauma from the expanding bullet passing through their bodies destroying tissue and disrupting their nervous system. Even though it may appear that the bullet flipped a deer a$$ over teakettle, it wasn't the direct force of the bullet that did it, it was the reflex reaction of the deer that did it.
Mike