As a kid, a .410 brought down my first deer, a 6 point. The deer was running across a field about a 100 yards away when I opened up with my single shot Savage. I got off a couple of rounds and probably was shooting about 5 feet high because at the time I knew little about ballistics.

The buck stopped running and since my dad was on the other side of a hill close to me, he came over the hill to investigate what the heck I was doing. He got off both barrels of his 16 gauge side by side and missed. The deer saw him and ran away from him and towards me.

The buck was running with his head down and directly at me. I shot again at 20 yards with the .410 and this time I connected. The slug hit the deer in the middle of the neck and the impact from the slug literally flipped the deer over on its back and it landed dead on the spot.

To this day I think the deer would have ran me over if I didn't shoot it first. So yes, a .410 certainly will kill a deer. But if you are looking for a smaller gauge shotgun, I would think a 20 gauge would be a better choice.