Never shot a deer with ballistic tips but like many others have said if the bullet placement is correct you can kill a deer with just about anything. However, wild hogs are a different story. These critters can be very tuff and we have had many hogs hit with .270 and .308 ballistic tip rounds that we killed but had to track forever to find them. Not to mention they are expensive. After cleaning some of the hogs we shot with them, the ballistic tips seem to do more damage to the area of impact with less penetration.