Interesting comments and choices. BTW, I've gone through a couple of semi autos as well. But my current favorite for the desert bucks I hunt is a Springfield Armory M1A Squad Scout. Wears a 1.5-4X Leupold Scout Scope. A truly reliable .308 gas gun.
I killed my first buck in 1960 with a Remington 740 in 30'06. My second with a Marlin 336 in .35 Remington. I no longer have either rifle.
What I've "evolved to" are usually custom bolt action rifles. That's because I learned over the years that cartriages really don't vary a lot. But rifles do in how they shoot from field positions, and especially when one is in a hurry. The other thing I've learned is that it's a mistake to buy something that you've "fallen in love with" unless I've given myself a chance to be sure the rifle actually fills a need. I've gone through lots of rifles, too many to bother listing here. The ones that stayed are the ones that can be relied on to work as they should when I need them to. E
