That story shows that it is not the cartridge, but rather the "hold". The trick is just don't shoot if the shot isn't right , especially when trying something like that.
Mike
Mike, it seems you missed my point entirely. I cannot prove it, but always assumed my buddy's "hold" on that doe he shot with a .338 Win. Magnum was good. He was a fine shot who hand-loaded for fine accuracy, and he always sighted his guns in and got plenty of practice. He told me he was heading back toward camp near dusk when the doe and two yearlings stepped out onto a logging road and stopped. He had a broadside shot at a stationary deer at around 50-60 yards with a rifle that had way more horsepower than needed to do the job. But he said that as he was squeezing the trigger with a "hold" on the heart, the deer suddenly leaped forward into the brush. All it took was a split second of movement, and his shot landed a good foot behind where he intended. When I joined in on the tracking job, we had a spotty blood trail of dark blood, but he was sure we'd soon find the deer piled up dead. It didn't work out that way. I saw the deer first with my rechargeable spotlight. It was standing with her ears down and head in her side looking back at me. It's tail was clamped down and it was obviously hurting. But it moved into the darkness before my buddy could get in position for a finishing shot. It was another hour and a half before we were able to finish it.
If the OP really killed 304 deer in 55 years of hunting, all one shot kills, and never lost or wounded one, that is an outstanding record. I related a couple weeks ago how I got hypothermia tracking a deer I shot, and subsequently lost because the wind and snow became so bad I couldn't track it any longer. That was a roughly 45 yard standing broadside chip-shot with a .50 cal. flintlock, and I never saw a deer go down so fast. I held for a high heart shot, which I like because the massive blood loss ensures a very fast kill, and the lower chambers often keep pumping and get a lot of blood out of the meat. I'll never know what went wrong, because it began flopping around as I was reloading, which I was certain was only nerves. Then it jumped up and took off running. But I know things don't always work out perfectly when hunting. I've had bullets deflected by a small branch or twig. And even a 300 gr. .50 cal. Maxi Hunter bullet wasn't enough to compensate. I killed several deer with a .45 cal flintlock, and none went over 40 yards before dropping dead. But I switched to the .50 cal because I didn't feel that a .45 cal 90 grain roundball at over 1100 fps was enough for less than perfect shots. A .25 cal ACP 52 gr. bullet at roughly the same velocity is much more marginal, but fine for small game. I used the .50 cal flintlock simply because I felt that putting the crosshairs of a scoped .30-06 on a deer was too easy, and I didn't mind losing out on killing a deer because of something like a bad flint or my pan powder getting wet. But when I learned to make the thing go off reliably, it was more than adequate to make a quick humane kill... except for that one I lost.
I know my bolt action .22 LR could easily put a bullet in a deer's ear every time at 50 yards, and kill it instantly. I do that every summer on groundhogs. I don't need to risk wounding a deer to prove it to myself. If the OP hits a deer with .25 ACP bullet in the jaw because it moved it's head as the trigger was pulled, do you think we will hear about it running off to starve?
