I agree with the 180 as being to tough,I have consistently had deer go farther with 180 grainers than 150 grains.
Now when i was young(about 40 years ago) when dogs were legal in our area the 180 was real popular with the guys running the dogs as they were walking through the thickest stuff imaginable and more often than not the only shot presented to them was a butt shot and for that the 180 grain bullet was great. Lung shoot a deer with a 180 and yep he is dead but if you dont hit the shoulder of spine and just the lungs he will go farther on average than a 150 grain bullet would allow.Not saying this is always true ,very little is ALWAYS true whether hunting or almost anything else in life just that it is most often small hole in and small hole out. I hunt alot around water(edges with a creek and a bayou close by and farther deer goes more likely he will get in the water and regardless of how good a tracker you think you are tracking in the water is impossible !I try to shoot deer in the shoulder as much as I can but if I zig when the deer zags and i hit him in the lungs I have a lot more confidence in the 150 grain bullet.
If on the other hand I lived or hunted in an area where i could watch the deer run the entire distance and was assured he would drop in the open I would have no problem with the 180 grain bullet.
In addition I find the 150 grain factory loads kick less than the 180 grain .
I remember 35 years ago when a member of our hunting camp decided that since the deer he was shooting were running so far with the 180 grain bullet that he would use the 220 grain bullet.His reasoning was that since the 220 was heavier that it was obviously more powerfull !
well you can imagine and be right that the deer went even farther. Tried to explain to him beforehand but well you know how it goes sometime ,I was younger than him.
