The \gamma -ray deposition history in an expanding supernova ( SN ) ejecta has been mostly used to constrain models for Type Ia SN . Here we expand this methodology to core-collapse SNe , including stripped envelope ( SE ; Type Ib/Ic/IIb ) and Type IIP SNe . We construct bolometric light curve using photometry from the literature and we use the Katz integral to extract the \gamma -ray deposition history . We recover the tight range of \gamma -ray escape times , t _ { 0 } \approx 30 - 45 \textrm { day } , for Type Ia SNe , and we find a new tight range t _ { 0 } \approx 80 - 140 \textrm { day } , for SE SNe . Type IIP SNe are clearly separated from other SNe types with t _ { 0 } \gtrsim 400 \textrm { day } , and there is a possible negative correlation between t _ { 0 } and the synthesized ^ { 56 } Ni mass . We find that the typical masses of the synthesized ^ { 56 } Ni in SE SNe are larger than those in Type IIP SNe , in agreement with the results of Kushnir ( 2015 ) . This disfavors progenitors with the same initial mass range for these explosions . We recover the observed values of ET , the time-weighted integrated luminosity from cooling emission , for Type IIP , and we find hints of non zero ET values in some SE SNe . We apply a simple \gamma -ray radiation transfer code to calculate the \gamma -ray deposition histories of models from the literature , and we show that the observed histories are a powerful tool for constraining models .