THey' re illegal for deer here in KS, but I' ll mention this anyway...

Look at how heavy the slug is, what, 1/5oz? Ok, that' s 87.5grains, so about the weight of a 22cal centerfire, however, instead of a 90grn bullet coming from a .22-250 at 3000fps, you get 90grns at less than 2000fps...there was a thread on this a while back that I did all the math on to show the energy, it was pretty pathetic, you might do a search and look at that one. At 20yrds, yes, it could probably kill a deer cleanly if and only if you shoot it VERY well.

They just aren' t deer guns, as much as I love .410' s, they just aren' t strong enough to kill deer humanely at any practical range. If the kid really wants to start hunting, get him something bigger, a handi-rifle from NEF/H&R in a good deer cartridge can be had for $125, or in a 20ga or 12ga for $90 if your state is shotgun only.