I have never been disappointed in the performance of patched round balls for deer hunting. I think I have only recovered one ball in 40 years of hunting and close to 60 deer taken. That one ball was a .50 caliber that I recovered just under the hide after it had gone thru the shoulder blade. The balls that went completely thru the deer usually left a 1" or larger exit wound with lots of internal damage. I just find that deer have great tenacity to life, and even with shots in the vitals they can, and do, run off. As I stated in my original post, the places I hunt are very thick, and unless the deer drops in its tracks, or only a few steps away, you can count on a long tracking job crawling on hands and knees in the laurel. That is why I have found that the .58 seems to be dropping the deer much faster.