Good post and great answers from Wing and MTH. I have killed many deer with the 06 and used several different bullets. Deer are tough and most will run a short distance before going down especially on a boiler room hit. My buck this year was shot squarely through the heart with Federal vital shok 180 gr barnes TSX which is the best load I ever used especially for larger game like elk. The deer ran about 20 yards then piled up. I had a couple of boxes left over from my elk hunt and decided to use them on deer. The 165 gr load would have been a better fit for deer but I chose to use the bigger loads since I had so many left over and they are expensive. Shot placement is the most important but using a quality bullet is also good insurance that you are doing all you can do to put the animal down and keep him there. Some don't like the premium factory loads because they are expensive but I value the animal too much to take a chance.