wow swampdog,...now you got me thinking...the neck of a deer is a very tough bony part of the deer,but i sure would have thought the nosler would have done the trick even at 175 yds...in other words what i am gathering here is that sometimes a little fragmentation might be good for a quiker kill ,but a person definitely wouldnt want anything too explosive(my own thoughts here)...maybe the best thing we could do to be fair and humane to the deeer population is start shooting them with a 30-06....as your friend did!.....thanks for the reply and take care....P.S. ...i did have good results with the hornaday .243 100 grainers in factory shells called light magnum...i dont know the exact type of bullet they wwere for sure but i assume they were interlocks