.410 slugs are constantly discounted by guys that will happily go after a deer in the woods with a .357 handgun. They need to read the ballistic tables. I wouldn't choose a .410 for deer but if you get it sighted in (and actually have sights), it will definitely do a deer at woods distances, assuming you can wait for a decent shot. (Like NOT when the deer is going Mach 3). I've done that with a little blacktail fork horn that visited my friend's apple orchard in the fall; gun was a Savage Model 24 with a Weaver K1.5 on it. I was doing jackrabbit patrol when I ran into this guy.
