Shoot something big enough (Caliber) to take out the lungs and they dont go far at all, and you dont ruin your meat.
For all the fans of the little ones though, those small calibers on a big deer sometimes do good to take out 1 shoulder, and like stated before no wheels = no movement, but 1 wheel will take you on a heck of a tracking job.
My 2 cents is on large bodied deer shoot .264 cal and up
I' m sorry but idotic remarks like this pissme off. It dont take a magnum to punch through an animal. It takes the right bullet selection. My good friend shoots a .300 win mag and I showed him up with my .243. We took some hogs one weekend, he took two at a distance of 40 and 60 yds, one in the neck and one in the vitals and both shots failed to pass through, this coming from his.300mag. I took the one below at a distance of 240 yds, I was aiming for his ear and hit just below that ,right in the first vertabrae of the neck shattering it and blowing straight through and dropping himlike a ton of bricks. My son pictured here also took a large spike that weighed in at 140lbs on the same sendero this hog was taken but the next morning. The distance was 190yds. He hit it straight through the front shoulders shatterring both bones and going clean through leaving a blood trail a blind man could follow for 40 yds. I would have preferred himto hit behind the shoulders but thats where he hit, Either way my friend was using the no good for nothing 150 gr.corelocks and I was using Hornady ammo in 100 gr. Please dont tell me I need a magnum. Let me post some veloctys of deer rifles at 300 yds.
308 2000 fps
30-06 2200 fps
270 2200
.243 2400
.300 2300
.7 mag 2500
Either one of these calibers are excellent for deer
Penetration has nothing to do with the diameter of a bullet ,or if magnum is printed on the barrell either. LOL !
I refuse to condemn anyone who shoots at something other than the heart lung. However, I will say this: If I were the latest gold metal shooter in the olympics, it would be irresponsible for ME to ever take a head shot at a deer at 200 yards. The deer part that moves the most and the fastest is the head, and a " miss" of the brain doesn' t equal a " missed" deer always, it could mean a broken jaw deer. With a head shot, you could actually Hit the point in space you were aiming for and still miss the brain due to a last second movement of the head. I wouldn' t want that on my conscience.
I have never ever wounded a deer shot with one of my many high powered rifles, never. I cant say that about my bow though, wish I could.