I hunt some pretty rough terrain(young oak thickets laced with multiflora rose and blackberries, ravines, and the like, in all sorts of weather) and use a Ruger Hawkeye AW in .308 for that. It takes a beating and suffers not at all, from what I can tell. If I had to pick one to walk away with for the rest of my days, it would likely get the nod.
The rifle is deadly with a 150 CT ballistic tip, which works great for anything around here. Got plenty of those, buddy got a big box of them from an Olin plant he was installing cranes in, said one of the guys told him they had an overrun on some bullets and did he want some. He brought them home and gave them to me because he knew I loaded, and he didn’t. Been using them for years, got enough to hunt and shoot with for the rest of my life, barring a war or similar heavy use.
