I hunt a lot with a shotgun. Mostly white tail deer. I'd estimate I've harvested over 75 deer with a shotgun in the last 20 years. I loved the 3" and 3.5" Federal Premium #1 buck loads and was very, very sad when they discontinued the load, especially the 3.5". Since then, I've been using the Federal Premium 3" 00 buck with flight control and it has performed very well. I use the Federal Premium 3" #4 buck for coyotes but it has never impressed me on deer.
We use the Federal Power Shok 3" #2 buck for the kids in the 20 gauge guns and keep the shots to around 25 yards, it seems to kill them just fine.