ORIGINAL: Briman
If you need a short barreled rifle to handle it in brush, you are probably doing something wrong with your hunting strategy. The only hunting strategy that I know of where you spend a lot of time walking through thick stuff is driving. I've done a lot of deer drives and everyone tends to carry either a remington 740 or 760 series rifle or sometimes a bolt rifle. The guys that I drove with would put away their leverguns and bring out one of the above mentioned rifles for drives for the simple reason that a 1/2cock makes the rifle way to slow to use when you have a split second to bring the rifle up and shoot.
For methe issue is deer drives,becauseI don't hunt that way. But the Brush gun is nice to have on the walk into and out of the stand in the woods.. Plus it is easier to manuver in a tree stand than a long barrell..