ORIGINAL: EKM
If single shot, then Ruger #1, falling block instead of break open.
In any case a single shot is a package with a built in limitation from the very start.
The refrain of many a guide and/or PH working with an American client.... "Stop admiring your shot and hit him again!".... too much deer hunting.
I hunt alot of management areas where the general rule is if you're the last one to shoot at the deer, it's yours. Heard stories of a case where a man shot a deer, it ran off, passed another man who shot
at the deer. When the argument was presented to the local game wardens working the check station they said the last one who pulled the trigger on the deer got it. They completely ignored the fact that the first man shot the deer facing left to right and hit it in the right side, while the second shot at it while running right to left and there was no entry on the left side of the deer.
I guess the point of all that is to say that if I'm in one of the management areas I'm going to keep shooting 'till it's down or it's gone. That being said, a good lever action is always my choice in these situations. Sometimes I will take my 338 with the thought that the deer wont need a follow up shot.