There is no reason it won't be good for hunting at short distances providing that fast expanding bullets are used and shots are well placed. Hunters probably harvested middle-sized European big game with 8,5x46R more than a century ago, at a time when 6,5x54 MS was considered suitable for hunting elephant, so this caliber should still work today even if it would be consider not powerful enough by today's standards. The only potential restriction may be national regulations for residual energy - in France 1000 Joules at 100 meters when hunting "big game" (from roe deer to above), to be assessed at country level.
Louis