Okanagan:Those Canadian (BC,Alberta)mule deer can be huge;my biggest (body weight)came from Alberta,and I freely admit to gawking at him for a few minutes before I shot him.I was not concerned with having enough rifle,as I had a 7 mag,which to me is a part of the 270,30/06,7 mag family) so no big deal.
He was also the largest buck I've killed that stood around while I studied him,as most of my deer have been taken while I was walking, on the ground, etc, so agree with E's comments about sped and accuracy and will only add that a long,heavy rifle chambered for a heavy-recoiling rifle is somewhat of a handicap in a lot of the country I hunt.
A guy should use what he likes but my half-assed observations are that most guys are over-scoped and over-gunned.But I have also noticed that some of these folks are not particularly good with anything;knowledge of trajectory to them is sort of a vague notion;they are equipped for long-range but don't know how to handle it,shoot indifferent groups during sighting-in sessions at camp("good enough" they say),can't shoot at all off-hand or from improvised rests.
I was in the company of one of these guys(otherwise a VERY good guy),when we chanced on two(!)B&C class whitetails at first light in the field I was to be posted on(hey, it happens).The largest,an aboslute once-in-a-lifetime monster in rack and body size,stood calmly about 250 yards away watching the smaller buck (he later grossed 174)chasing a doe.This fellow had the opportunity to shoot this buck,but declined,saying he could not hit him from that distance.This was true because I had tracked a buck he shot the day before (at about 100 yards)the full length of a 1/2 mile field.He never touched him despite running the rifle dry.
When asked by the guide why I thought he had missedI commented that the fellow would be better served with a 7/08 and a 3X scope that he could hit with, than the 7 mag and 6.5-20(!)Leupold he was using.
