There was a thread asking the same question on the old gunboards site in the collector forum a couple years ago, one of those who responded is a family of Sustinence hunters up north for a local tribe in Alaska I believe it was, the posters whole family as well as other tribal hunters all used MNs most commonly the Finn M39 with iron sights and Czech light ball ammo was the favorite, they had pictures of 10-12 Moose stacked up like toppled dominos as well as Elk and even a couple of whales all taken with the 7.62x54R there were several Kodiac bears pictured as well......... no fancy optics or trigger jobs just utter simplicity just like the Siberian hunters that have used the Mosin Nagant for decades........ American hunters apperantly need more handicapping however to make up for a lack of skill or actual practice as only here in America is it considered a necessity to have the latest greatest scope to make up for an inability to stalk within range of accurate iron sighted shooting, custom triggers to make up for errors in shooting form that pevent accurate shot placement etc... and larger bullets to make up for poor shot placement
However if you actually can hunt without the need for crutches and such then with proper shot placement and a tight bore on the rifle ya can take any game animal in the world with a 8mm mauser or 7.62x54R round if ya lack any of these basic skills which at one time young men grew up learning from fathers and grandfathers etc.. then you had better either limit yourself to the smaller North American specis and add the best scope ya can get, ya can get Timny custome drop in triggers for your Mauser and Hubber triggers for the MN to give ya a super tunable trigger system.......
Myself, I gave up on using rifles 25 years ago for hunting and have went back to what my father and grandfather tought me while growing up on Pine Ridge Indian rez in SD hunting elk and yes buffalo with a 55lb draw weight flatbow made by my uncle...... you can drop any animal in the world if you practice the skills to get you in close (never have taken a shot over 20 yards while hunting) and proper shot placement..... that bow is long gone I still have some of the homemade arrows though today I'm lazy and use a compound bow but...... an older one don't need all the sights and release aids etc... instead I PRACTICE every week for several hours, same thing ya can do with your MN or mauser to get dead on shot placement...... if ya got some time go over to gunboards.com and their collector forum, do some creative searches for "hunting" and maybe that old thread got saved when they moved the board or simply post a question asking about it, That guy who posted all the pics was a regular I believe and others might be able to point ya to him
BTW Lets not forget the large numbers of dangerous game taken throughout the early 20th century with the 7mm mauser fired from military surplussed guns, that was one of the most popular big game cartridges ya could get here in the states for decades ya weren't considered a "real hunter" if ya didn't use a 7 mm mauser............ how times have changed, the animals musta gotten biggr and tougher huh?
