Over the last 40 years I've taken prairie dogs, coyotes, pronghorn, whitetail deer, mule deer, black bear, and elk. A .223 or .22-250 is great for varmints. For pronghorn, whitetail, mule deer and black bear the .243, .25-06, .270, .280 and .30-06 are fine. For elk the .270, .280 or .30-06 are fine, so is a .7mm Rem Mag. I used a .300 Win Mag for my two 5 X 5 bull elk but wish I had used my .270 because it is much lighter, very accurate and great for western mountain hunting. On western hunts my range limit is about 450 yards and I took my best mule deer at 400+ yards.
