i have an encore w/15" barrel in 7mm-08 and a fixed 4X leupold scope, i have killed several whitetails with it, love this thing, i went with the -08 because of the 7 mm stuff i already had, i looked at the 7-30 waters and still chose the -08, btw i had an older t/c in 30-30 14"barrel, my dad wanted it to shoot coyotes with. both are great pistols. the only thing that is kind of crazy is getting used to the ler scopes, maybe someone on here can explain it better, it's like you can see the target and you can move it, the target, or a double image, but you will like it. i trust mine to 150 yards anyday