I'm not much of a western hunter even though I live in the west. I have a Merkel 141 in 8x57JRS that I would use for ANY North American game excluding the big bears. The Nosler manual shows their 200gr Partition at 2600fps which should be adequate for both 200yds+ and the larger animals. The 141 is small light and very accurate although I have not shot any 200gr bullets in it. I have some 200gr Swifts ready to try. It handles 175,180 perfectly. Scope is a 1.5x5 Leupold Vari-X III. I would actually have preferred my Otto Geyger 8x60RS for western hunting and it WAS accurate with 200 gr Swifts. It had longer barrels than the 21 1/2" the Merkel has, but for walking the hills I would prefer the Merkel.