Coming from the northeast, and hunting thick stuff and mountaintops, when I think a 'stalking woods rifle', I think of a gun that will handle and point like a shotgun and an action that will give me a fast 2nd or 3rd shot if need be, and a gun with a short barrel that handles well in tight quarters, way before caliber even enters into the picture.
While I like bolt actions they don't seem to fit into the above scenario, not for me anyways. A lever action, semi-auto, or pump I feel are all better choices than a bolt.
As was said, a larger caliber hole in the barrel with a larger cartridge will lighten the weight of the gun. Additionally that larger caliber hole will be more effective on a marginal hit, which can happen stalking whitetails in heavy cover because if you jump them, they don't tend to give you much of a shot, so I think more in the 30-35 caliber range.
In the early 60's when I started out, it wasn't uncommon to get a dud in a box of shells, as manufacturing wasn't what it is today. An oldtimer up in the Catskills years ago told me that if you put the hammer down on a whitetail and had a dud shell, a pump was the only gun that would allow you to jack another round in without coming off the target and be able to get the shot off. While I've never had a dud round that didn't go off, I do think about what he said everytime I carry my 30-06 pump carbine in the woods.
