I shoot a 7mm mag. It punches through every time and makes a crater in the ground. The deer always run and bleed out. The shock rarely kills them. I did however switch to a different, lighter, better mushrooming round and started to get consistent shock kills. The lesson is, more than caliber, the bullet is what makes the difference. The idea is to put as much energy into the deer at once. A punch through doesnt accomplish this as well. A punch through does damage less meat if you hit edible muscles. So there are pros and cons either way. If you own land that you will be riding around on frequently, a lighter round is more versatile. You can shoot varmits and coyotes in the off season. It would be much better a gun to have beside you all the time. You could carry a high grain mushrooming round for deer and a lighter grain round for varmits. You would be very versatile. If you plan on buying a lot of guns get one of each but like I said you are gonna want something you can carry around constantly. -Jeff