The .22 centerfires are illegal in some states. It is a shame that they are not illegal in my home state of Texas!
You don' t get extra points for shooting deer with a small caliber, so whats the big challenge? Why go hunting undergunned?
I know that I am going to hear about all the one shot kills that they have made. What you won' t hear about, is all the deer that have been crippled with the .22s!
Whitetail deer are fine game animals, worthy of more respect than to be shot with any .22!
I have said this before, and will say it again, if a person can' t handle a light rifle like a .243 or .257, they don' t have any business deer hunting!

I' d probably call it like this:

Rifle: .223, .22-250, .220swift (call it a 22cal with XX grains at over 3500fps law or something)

Handgun: .357mag and .44spcl, but probably open up to .45acp too.

I' d go with the .243 Win for centerfire rifle, and the .357 magnum for handgun.

I am not gonna lie, I go out with a 45/70 Marlin and a Ruger Redhawk in .480 Ruger. That will put em down.

JagMan, I am very curious. How many animals have you lost with a gun or bow. Curious how many deer/Elk/pronghorn/Moose/etc you have harvested. I myself have lost approximately 8 animals with a gun over my life. Almost all have been with a 270Win.

I have lost 3 deer. Two were because of poor judgement of a inexperienced hunter. The third, was a well hit deer with my .308 that I lost the trail of due to heavy rain.
None were because I purposely and intentionally went into the woods undergunned!
I feel really bad when I make a bad shot. Anyone who doesn' t feel bad about wounding game, is probably not a " hunter" , certainly not a sportsman!
I have a nice deer mounted that had recovered from being shot with a .22 Hornet.
How do I know it was a .22 Hornet? Because there was an old man on our lease that would shoot at any deer he saw from 3 yards to as far as he could see them with a .22 Hornet!
What do people tell themselves to keep from feeling bad about wounding game with the .22' s? " Gee, I' m sure I missed" , " oh well, better luck next time?"
The deer I recovered was a rarity! Most wounded deer suffer and die!
As I asked before, why go hunting intentionally undergunned?

But see your definition of be " undergunned" is your definition (i.e. opinion). Some might think your 308 is undergunned, and the reason you lost your animals was you were undergunned and if you shot them with a gun like 338RUM, they would have dropped in their tracks.

See what I am saying. I mean you don' t get any brownie points by shooting deer with a 308Win over a 300 Weatherby.

The .308 win is capable of cleanly taking any North American big game animal with the exception of the Great Bears. It is generally considered one of the best deer rounds for mixed terrain. Some see it as overgunned.

Exactly what I am talking about. Guess what I use for whitetail.

.243 rifle
.357 handgun