originally posted by bamaranger
Key phrase "all around", not just Indiana or south Alabama, but ALL around. That will effect my choice. However, consider the first responses.
I really don't think that there's any such thing as an "all around" rifle to handle
every possible situation, for that matter I don't think my Winchester is even the
best for every situation that I might have to deal with. For example, if I heard breaking glass in the middle of the night, I'd probably reach for my AR-15 and if there were pests eating the tomatoes in my wife's garden I'd probably pick up my Ruger 10/22, but the Winchester can accomplish both of those tasks, and a lot more,
adequately.
I find it interesting in the day of the black rifle, that the OP and the first response listed the traditional lever carbine, in more or less (in the case of the .454) traditional chamberings. I doubt this trend continues, as the popularity of the AR is enormous. But the appeal of the flat, lightweight carbine with a tube full of cartridges is hard to deny. Before we had to have lights, lasers, foregrips a full box of cartridges and the kitchen sink attached to our carbines, the Winlin's were indeed the GP rifle, seen in scabbards, gun racks in pickups, and propped in corners or hung over the doorway of rural folks everywhere. Eminently portable and amply powerful (ya like that?), so armed, one could sally forth and deal with most anything. Seems I read somewhere that noted explorers of the day did just that. I myself logged a lot of miles with a .357 Marlin until......
It's kind of amusing to me that a lot of older gun designs, including lever guns, are experiencing something of a renaissance right now. It seems like a lot of younger people who have only had experience with the "black rifles" are suddenly discovering just how useful, handy, and downright fun lever-action rifles can be. Also, when you look at some of the ridiculous laws and regulations in force in certain parts of the country, a fast-handling lever gun starts to make a lot of sense as compared to the goofy modifications needed to make a "black rifle" legal in some jurisdictions.
Another advantage to something like a lever-action is, as oldbear1950 pointed out, they have a more benign look than a "scary" gun like an AR or AK. Even in so-called "red states" where guns like AR's and AK's are legal, certain localities have differing politics and having, much less using, a "black rifle" can get one looked at with a more jaundiced eye than a more traditional looking gun. Even in deep-red Indiana, the city-county council in Indianapolis, with the full support of the Mayor and Prosecutor, recently passed gun-control ordinances including a ban on so-called "assault weapons" though these ordinances are unenforceable due to our state preemption law. I would be pretty nervous about defending myself with my AR if I lived in Indy (thankfully I don't), particularly if a mass-shooting were in the news, it was an election year, or the person I had to shoot was of, shall we say, a different demographic than me. Finally, while AR's are legal to hunt with in Indiana (assuming it's in a legal caliber for the game you're hunting) and many people do, I can't help but think that my old Winchester will draw a lot less attention from the game warden than an AR would.
I rigged up a scabbard that hung behind the seat and used it instead and that worked until that truck went down the road. Last two truck though really had no convenient way to store a rifle which is something that bothers me but seriously, health problems pretty much keep this old desert rat out of the desert anymore.