I'm a target shooter and haven't hunted in years. The MN 7.62x54R is an extremely powerful cartridge and fairly accurate out of the box. With tweaking, it can do well in 200 yard competition. As someone told me long ago..."You can only kill the deer dead." The 54R is plenty powerful to do that. Soft point hunting ammo is available and you can also load that yourself.
If you practice with the rifle and become proficient with it, I see no reason why you can't hunt with it.
Flash