I dare say that a lot of hunters drop a lot of deer using cheap rifles and cheap scopes, but they may lose a lot of deer, too.

My personal beliefis that for most typical hunting situations, just about any modern production rifle will do. (How did our ancestors kill so many deer without magnum calibers, thousand-dollar scopes, etc. etc.?)

That being said, what I've seen of the Remington 710 has left me completely unimpressed. There's a difference between economical and cheap, and the 710 just strikes me as cheap.

I hunt with a Savage 110 in .30-06. It cost me $400, and I just love it. It's accurate, reliable, sturdy, cheap, and just plain delivers for me.

As for caliber, all this "too much/too little" stuff is a bore, in more ways than one. Today's loads are so varied that the choices are nearly unlimited. I went with a .30-06 because I can use light loads (Remington's Managed Recoil) for small deer, all the way up to big honking loads for big pigs, and everything in-between.

But hey, it's your money. If you can't resist a low price, buy the 710.