I've been occasionally toting my M38 short rifle when deer hunting for the last 20 years or so. It's not my primary deer rifle, I just like to take different guns for a walk at least one time each season. I use the .268 Hornady bullet and the Hornady book starting load of W760 powder in Prvi brass. This is an easy shooting and accurate load in my gun, but I did build a taller front sight blade to zero it at 100yds.
Saturday I went out behind the house to one of my stands. My brother and nephew parked a mile or so away and walked through the woods towards me. They saw some turkeys and put a few grouse up but only saw one deer that just flashed through the woods. They made it to my stand and I got down to walk out with them and drive them back to their Jeep. We split up for the walk back out of the woods to my house.
As we got to the foot of the last hill we needed to climb, a single deer came running down from the top angling in front of me. I took a knee and when I had a quick shot through a grape tangle I squeezed one off. The deer piled up right there, not able to take another step! I thanked the lord for the blessing, and started into the work of gutting and dragging.
After dropping off off my brother and nephew I had lunch, then we met back up and I spent the rest of the day pushing for them. We didn't get any more deer, but we still had a good time. At least we all have tags left for flintlock season!