Some will say its too small but personally for deer hunting I think its about perfect. I would go with at least an 80 grn bullet up. I use 85grn Nos Partitions in my .243Wssm. Very low recoil factory ammo is reasonable to buy even if you get the premium stuff. Alot of guys on this site swear by thier 243's here. Just do a search you'll see all the threads that have been previously discussed on this. The recoil very light.