I think you overestimate the need for ultimate speed. Make the first shot properly and it reduces the need for each and every shot that follows.
Exactly!
But in my experience anybody who really practices with a bolt-action can run them just as fast (or faster) that a lever-gun shot by a relative amateur. I know this partly due to taking part in a fast-shooting contest a few years ago, three shots offhand, at three targets placed at 50 yards and the next two closer. The contestants were guides, average hunters, and more than one gun writer. They could use any of a selection of rifles, which included a lever-action .450 Marlin. Many chose the lever. I won with a bolt-action I'd never shot before, in some medium-magnum cartridge I don't recall. I'd bet Phil Shoemaker would have beaten my time with his .458 "Old Ugly."
“Montana seems to me to be what a small boy would think Texas is like from hearing Texans.” John Steinbeck
