If deer is your quarry, then it don't take much to whack them, especially short range whitetails. Many folks plateau at this level.

High mountain muley's may be a bit more challenging in terms of rifle performance.

The good news is rifles are relatively inexpensive compared to the cost of the bigger hunting trips, so one can always buy another one foraway from home/remotetripsfor bigger game later, that is assuming that you don't become stuck in a rut and soooo attached to "old Betsy" that you can't mentally move beyond her,which of course leads intothe neverending"just get by with what you've got" game.