I'm afraid if it were a 6x6 or bigger the deer would of turned around and said put away the bb gun(30-06) cause that tickles my tummy. I don't mean to put the 30-06 down but its just not my kinda gun. yeah sure it has killed more big game than any other cartridge i'll give it that but from my dads experince if it couldn't kill a 4x4 buck at 125 yards what in the hell would it have done to an elk???