gnoahhh and flintlocke are on track! The Mannlicher-Schoenauer's were developed for exactly the usage the OP is taking about. There are many other suitable designs that work as well, but none better in my opinion!
flintlocke, I've had good luck accuracy wise with several bullets in my 1903 but now stick with the 160 gr Hornady RNs and 156 Prvi RNs because they both feed properly and others don't. I have also settled on JB's load of 40 gr of H4831 for both bullets. I wish I could still slip through the woods like I used to do, but at age 74 with very poor balance and bad knees I tend to spend 95% of my time looking at where I step instead of where the deer are. But every now and then the M-S still gets it done!
I thought they were designed primarily for alpine hunting, easy to carry while climbing and the long forend makes using the rifle as a climbing aid easier. That doesn't reduce their virtues as brush guns.
I’ve drooled over Sell’s little carbine since the 60s, and remember the piece (one anyway) about the custom Marlin he built late in life. Reduced recoil, IIRC, was at least part of the reason he built it. George Mattis, who wrote Whitetail, Fundamentals and Fine Points for the Hunter, used a Model 94 carbine with the old forward-mounted Redfield 2x, and was, “aware of and willing to accept its limitations”. That’s a fine book BTW, well worth seeking out and acquiring and deserves a spot on the shelf along with Sell’s and Koller’s signature volumes.
Brother, I’m right there with you on walking cautiously in the woods. I’m nursing a bum knee right now, likely the product of a long, difficult deer hauling last season. Takes a looooonng time to heal these days. I just picked up a set of trekking poles to help me hobble after turkeys next month. They work great in the yard, we’ll soon see how the handle terrain.
![[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]](https://i.imgur.com/4VMyA25l.jpg)
