I’ve killed a lot of deer,some really close( like stepping up on a rock hummock in salal and surprising a deer in its bed about 6 ‘ away ) and the longest, maybe 150 yards ,but the average shot was probably 50 yards or less.The old guy I used to know used his 25/35 and he had no problem filling his freezer with that.Obviously where you hunt and the terrain dictates whether you need the capabilities of a flat shooting long range rifle,but it seems to me anything that you can shoot with confidence is just fine,in fact the more powerful cartridges ie:7mm may be even less advantages than the moderate powered cartridges that dump their energy inside the deer rather than blowing right through without expanding ,or those high velocity rounds that kill the deer, but ruin a lot of meat.Admitedly,I’ve stepped back into the 6.5 x55 swede range ,even a 303 or 30/06 is overkill on coastal black tails ,it seems to actualy work better than higher velocity cartridges that the gun writers seem to be telling us we just have to have..and rush out and buy.Deer aren’t that hard to kill if you have a moderate cartridge and hold the rifle straight..