Going the other way.... I started Zach out with a .223. He killed his first 3 deer at age 6 with that, and probably killed another 6 or 8 with it before I traded it for a .22-250. He killed around 20 deer with the .22-250 before he saved up his lawn mowing money and bought his .25-06. Only 3 of those .22 centerfire-killed deer took more than a step after the shot. The rest dropped in their tracks dead. His first deer, I had him aim behind the shoulder at the lungs, just to be safe. He hit him right where he aimed, and the deer ran about 50 yards. Another buck he hit in the lungs, and it went about 25 yards before he put another shot in the base of the neck. The 3rd deer that didn't drop was a sika deer that Zach hit in the guts. Just a bad shot on a deer that was quartering away pretty hard. We didn't recover that one, unfortunately. Base of the neck/front of the shoulder is where I taught him to shoot. When you hit a deer there, it is dead right there literally in its tracks every time. A 55gr to 65gr softpoint hunting bullet in a .22 centerfire rifle is plenty for whitetail. If you hit a deer in the guts with a .300 Win. Mag, it's still gonna run off. It's all about shot placement.
