Alsatian

If you are going with a lever action rifle, your bullets will more than likely be round nosed bullets (lever action rifles stack cartridges in a cylinder, bullet tip of one cartridge contacting primer of another cartridge -- hence round nosed bullets are advisable to avoid recoil causing the sharp point of one bullet touching off the primerof the next cartridge) which are not very ballistically efficient. Thus, considerations of which cartridge performs better at longish range -- 300 yards or greater -- probably don't count for much, as the round nosed bullets aregoing to limit the long range effectiveness of either cartridge.