if you hunt with a gun long enough, every part of it will be jabbed into your back or sides from sling carry. i am no no.1 expert and i havent exactly spent more then a week hunting with my no.1 but imo it carries great and i have yet to have a problem with the lever opening while i am carrying it. that story that you heard about a no.1, if it is true, it wouldnt matter if the guy was carrying a bolt gun or a lever style gun, that brush would have caught the bolt/lever of the rifle anyway. likely its a post by someone who doesnt own a no.1 or is in deap buyers remorse. i mean honestly who would go out hunting, have a little brush catch on their gun and blame it (or at least direct some of the blame) towards the design of the rifle. not only that, but they would go out of there way to post about it as a complaint on some other website.