I've taken a couple of deer, off a rest, with a 260 Rem in a Ruger 77 package.. both were taken at 300 yds plus, with a 3 x 9 Leupold on top, target dot reticle.. set on 4 power...

was shooting 100 grain Ballistic tips at 3350 fps MV...

recoil was low enough, I never lost site picture via the scope..

3 x 9 plenty for deer...more power maybe for sage rats or prairie dogs.. but then again if I had a 4.5 x 14 offered to me... I wouldn't refuse it.. it would go on top of my 243 Win Heavy Barrel..in place of the 4 x 16 Weaver on it now..

"Minus the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the Country" Marion Barry, Mayor of Wash DC

“Owning guns is not a right. If it were a right, it would be in the Constitution.” ~Alexandria Ocasio Cortez