Joe;
I killed my first deer with a 7x57 Mauser. Mine was a Spanish 1916 model which was a short rifle version of the long 1893. A co-worker named Bill, who did gunsmithing & ran a shop out of his home had it in the pre-1968 days. It had been listed in the mags as "Sporterized" which consisted of removing the top handguard & shortening the forearm. Someone had ordered it themselves, then decided it wasn't what the wanted so traded it in to Bill. I got it for less than I could have ordered it for & did a lot more work on it & made a pretty decent shooter out of it. Killed that first deer with open sights, made by Williams. I eventually put a Leupold M8-3X with post reticle on it which was worth more than the rifle.

Miller/TN
I Didn't Say Everything I Said, Yogi Berra