I have hunted with most of the rifles listed. I would say the best one to use either as original or modified is a 6.5 Arisaka carbine. Once you get used to the safety, it is really fast. All the other rifles have uncomfortable safeties to use when hunting. It is easy to put a scope on the 6.5 as you can bend the bolt enough to clear the scope and still use the original safety. It is one of the lightest rifles, even the 7.7 model is fairly light in original condition.