My standard deer gun is a Remington 7400 30-06, Bell & Carlson stock. Barrel cut to 20" and parkerized. Bushnell Elite 3200 2-7x32 scope on it. Handles great and gets on target fast. Accuracy is good enough for 250 maybe 300yds. Now, if I was going to build a gun expressly for hunting deer size game, it would be a .260 Remington, barrel would be 22"-23", pretty stout contour (at least .675 diameter at muzzle), fluted, probably teflon coated barreled action, and I'd do it on a Remington Model Seven action for it's compactness, with a Bell & Carlson stock. It would handle pretty well and shoot like crazy. I'd take anything out to 400 yds, maybe a tad more. It would wear a Weaver Grand Slam 4.75x40 scope or a 6x of some sort. The extra power of the 6x would be nice, but I love that Grand Slam scope.