Showing up in camp with a .35 Whelen will make you look like an elk hunter with experience. Having a pump with a scope mounted firmly to the reciever while the barrel flops around,... that will get you made fun of.

I actually like the pumps fine but only because my father has one. It's the only one I've used and it's been fine. My Grandfather also had one though, and one year my Dad was complaining on the phone that he couldn't get it zero'd for nothing. I mentioned the scope being mounted on the reciever and the barrel fit and he took it to a gunsmith for a look. The barrel had indeed come loose. I'm not sure what was done to fix it, but he killed a nice 4x4 that following year. It turned out to be his last.

“You never need fear a man, no matter what his size. When danger threatens, call on me, and I will equalize.”
Samuel Colt.

�Common sense is genius dressed up in work clothes.� - Ralph Waldo Emerson