I hear ya. I bought a winchester .44 magnum lever just cause I wanted something different, and boy do I love it. It is both fun and accurate. Plus it holds like 11 rounds. I only wished they had the Marlin Stainless steel .44 out when I was looking. I would have bought that instead, most likely. I may still pick one up just cause I like the .44 caliber so much. Anyhow, I've had a lot of novice shooters try out the .44 lever at 50 yards on bowling pins and no-one has missed yet . I have a .44 encore pistol which accurately shoots the same ammo as the levergun, so I only have to worry about 1 kind of cartridge when hunting. For a "fun" gun, the .44 is very hard to beat. I too hunt in a shotgun only zone, so I've only shot paper and bowling pins thus far, but the knowledgeable members of this site have assured me the .44 is plenty of gun for deer.

KEJ