When I came home from the Army in 1964 and could finally afford a commercial deer rifle, instead of using a cut-down British .303, I bought a Ruger Model 77 in .243Win. At that time, I thought that the rifle could serve both as a groundhog shooter and a deer rifle. I killed a fair number of deer with the .243Win, but shot placement had to be right on, or I ended up tracking, which at dusk, can be dicey. The 7mm bullet is a better killer of deer, when loaded in the right cartridge/rifle combo. Also, the 7mm bullet would not be outclassed if an opportunity came to hunt big mule deer. I personally would not go after elk with 7mm-08, but plenty of hunters out there would. IMO the 7mm-08 is a good intermediate rifle to fill out a battery of hunting rifles. That said, if a one rifle battery is what you seek, you should go with 30-06 or even up to a 7mm magnum or 30cal magnum rifle. With one of those, you can cover all bases on game on N. America. Think about what hunting you may have a chance to do in your lifetime and begin to build a complete battery of rifles to fill every type of game, after which you may someday go. For instance, off the top of my head; a complete battery of hunting rifles might be:223Rem for varmints, 270Win for deer sized critters, and a 338 for elk and bear sized animals. With those three, you could hunt almost anywhere in the world and not be undergunned. I am not excluding the 7mm-08, but in my arsenal, the .270Win would fill the slot for the 7mm-08 (maybe a generational thing!)