That's true, they have the ballistic coefficent of a Mack Truck. Depending on the twist of the barrel ( 1 in 66, 1 in 48 etc) a given gun will stabilize a round ball or a conical better. Some barrels have wide flat lands and grooves others have deep cut rifling. I find the wide/flat models prefer mini-balls. If you try to push a conical projectile down a 1 in 66 twist barrel too fast, you will find in short order that you are skipping lands. Your otherwise superior ballistic projectile now tumbles exhibiting the ballistic coefficient somewhere in the range of a basset hound sticking his head out of a moving car window. Some have short barrels in the 20 some odd inch range while others have 42" barrels. IMO it is best to decide what the max distance you are thinking of shooting a deer, "learn" your gun,work up a projectile type and load for that projectile, shoot that distance for practice and see what kind of penetration you can get compared to, say, a 50 yard shot. I agree with Zorro, but watch over-simplifying. Nothing like trying it out before-hand. Now is the time to start getting ready for deer season.
