my brother swears by the mosin for moose and deer. the only downside to them imo is that some have barrels meant to shoot .311 diameter bullet (often the 91/30) and some are bored to shoot true .308 bullets so reloading may be a problem. here in canada .311 bullets are very common because of the number of .303 shooters so my brother has no problem with finding bullets. i dont know about the powder loads but i know hes managed a safe load that sends a 174 matchking at 3010 fps from the 32 inch tube on his sako/mosin vtk m27. its a great deer load but i dont think hes tried it on anything bigger. i know he also tried the early ati scope mount with a new bolt handle and i know he had lots of trouble cutting/grinding the bolt off.