I have just this year taken a nice buck with a M&P Sport II, 16" barrel, .223. I had a perfect opportunity to see the effects in the boiler room and for some reason hit very far back from the POA. It did however hit spine and dropped him like a sack of poop. Seeing the damage on the carcass, I was interested to see I only had one exit wound, on the very first shot. The strange thing was, the 62 gr Fed Fusion seemed to deposit virtually all it's energy into the deer without blowing up a bunch of meat. It was not what I expected. Based on my performance, ie, not landing the pill in the lungs, I'd have to say it's more than up to doing the job given proper shot placement. In my opinion, marginal low percentage hits would yield expected results compared to my 308. Otherwise, aim small, miss small. I started carrying this rifle after my rotator cuff surgery because the very low recoil impulse and light weight. I am now planning to add the similar rifle ending in 10, rather than 15. All day on a single point sling just makes me happy.