I personally love the single shot. Around here people prefer to hunt with dogs. Within the last decade or so the number of people hunting with ML'ers has sky rocketed but look at how easy they are now. Got pellets, got electric instead of caps, got quick removable breech plugs, and so on.
I took my Hawkens that I spend almost 40hrs on building earlier this yr to work. Its a thing of beauty and I took that much time on it to make sure it was perfect. People (both hunters and non hunters) asked me if I plan to kill a deer with it, or how could I take it into the woods since its so nice.
Its a gun and is made to be shot. Took a buck with it this past Friday (2nd time the gun went into the woods) Nothing felt better than knowing that all the work I put into that gun, and then using it to take a deer with it.
Truth be told if I ever get a chance to take a monster buck that I get mounted I will retire this gun of its hunting duty. I will still shoot it for fun, however it will have a place on the wall with that buck.
Naturally I will have to buy another one and spend another 40 hours on building it to have another sidelock to hunt with.
Felt so rewarding to lay the smack down on a buck with the gun I shaped and finished.