Thread: Which lever / semi / pump rifle, and why?

Fellas

Hoping to gain some experience based insights here to help me with my next new rifle decision.

99% of my deer are taken in steep but quite open country, old let go farmland a lot of it, running up into bush above about 500m. Usually medium range shooting, 200m-600m, small bore stuff, .243, 6.5CM, .308. After the kill I watch a lot of big fat reds scarper up into the forest and I often think... one day... I’m gonna follow you in there.

The forest is quite open understory under tall mature regrowth, pretty good light but quite gnarly underfoot. So the deer get a good look at you from quite far and its bloody tough to get real close unless you have enough wind in your face to cover your noise, or you sit up on a good trail to clearings where you know they’re feeding. Really important to put them down fast, if they take off down slope it gets way steep real quick and recovery is a freakin’ pain in the ass. I aim well forwards for the CNS and front lungs, but in the woods time isn’t on my side and sometimes I miss the CNS. So I need a fast follow up option that with practice I can basically double tap ‘em if they don’t go down immediately. There’s some real big suckers in there and a bit of low lying brush to get through sometimes, so a heavy pill seems the go, and not too slow either. There’s also a shed load of pigs in there and some nasty bastards too, my mate has started carrying a short tactical type 12ga when checking the traps after he got charged in there last year.

Problem is all my rifles are set up for shooting at open country ranges. I need a proper woods gun, short barrel, quick to shoulder, fast reload & follow-up, 1-5x scope or maybe red dot. Probably minimum 200gr capable. Never owned a medium bore or big bore, but have shot plenty. Am pretty conservative about recoil usually, have never forgotten the Marlin 1895 SBL shooting a 405gr pill at 40000+psi, that was a kick all right. But manageable, if you’re use to it, just gotta practice. Options I’m looking at are:

Lever: Marlin 1895 SBL in .45-70 Govt (18.5" barrel)
Lever: Browning BLR in .358 Win (20" barrel)
Lever: Henry All Weather in .45-70 Govt (18.5” barrel)
Pump: Remington 7600 Carbine in .30-06 (18.5" barrel)
Semi-auto: Browning BAR in .308 (18" barrel)

I reload and so far the components for these cartridges look good supply wise, except for the .358 for obvious reasons it being the only rifle still made in this chambering.

If any of you have advice on which way to go and why, would be good to hear from you.

Cheers