You know, I see all these posts from time to time worried about meat damage. For me personally, getting the deer is my first priority, meat damage is secondary. If you want to drop deer consistantly with little meat damage, shoot a premium controlled expansion bullet like a trophy-bonded bearclaw ( wich is what I shoot ) or others like the a-frame or scirrocco, or barnes x, Hornady came out with a new one this year for 2003, but they didn't get 'em in production for the stores in my area to have them. Anyway, let me explain my way of thinking, ya'll can agree or disagree, but here in Louisiana with our liberal bag limit I have plenty of experience. The area where I hunt, I don't want to have to blood trail a deer if I can help it, these cut-overs are so thick, one hop and it is so thick you have to crawl through it. So 90% of the time I'm aiming for a slightly high shoulder shot, if they don't drop then I pulled off a little, but the good thing is, if I do pull I'm still in the vitals. I shoot the bearclaws, because on the off chance that I do have to blood trail I KNOW I'll have an exit hole, and with the bullet retaining most of it's weight meat damage is minimal, even with the .300 mag. Besides that, there ain't nothing in the shoulder anyway except hamburger or roasts. I shoot 150 grn bullets in the .300, 165grn in my '06, and 140 grners in my 7 mag. I used to shoot the barnes x, but went to the bear claws because they have just enough lead in them to make a bigger exit hole than the solid copper barnes x, had an experience with a double lung shot several years ago and although I had no trouble finding the deer, I wasn't satisfied with the blood trail, those barnes x's made small exit holes in my experience, the few that I have had to trail with the bearclaws on the other hand, I was extremely pleased. My 2 cents for what it's worth, good luck in 2004!