I've taken a few deer that were larger than 250 lbs. My biggest went 290, and I've seen the carcasses of 300 pounders. All of them have been taken with stuff in the 30-06/308 WIN range. All of them died fairly quickly. However, there is a strong visceral feeling you get when you face a super-sized animal on the hoof, and another profound feeling (I won't pun here, because I'm serious) when you have to dress one of them for the first time. Cleaning out something that is as big as you are does something to you.
The logical side of my mind tells me my 30-30 WIN will put one of these guys down. The empirical side of my head tells me that 165gr bullets driven at 2600-2700 fps is overkill. On the other hand, my last deer rifle was a Rem 7600 in 35 Whelen, and I'm considering a 45-70 for my next one. Something in my head just says "Quint, We're gonna need a bigger boat."
