I' m voting either .44mag or .45-70, the .44mag is a great deer round out to normal hunting ranges (under or around 200yrds), there are a million advantages to it as well: .30-30 like performance using 1/3 of the powder if you reload, fast handling for brush hunting, lightweight for portage, and cheap ammunition because it' s handgun ammo instead of rifle ammo, $20 a 50box instead of $20 a 20box.

The .45-70 is THE lever action deer cartridge, it just doesn' t get much better. The recoil' s pretty stiff in lightweight brush busters, but it can do it all, short range brush busting or long range field shooting.

As far as which gun to get it in, as far as I' m concerned, the Marlins are the only leverguns in the world...(Savage 99' s excluded)...the winchester' s gaping wounds scare me a little and their feeding is crap, BLR' s aren' t real leverguns (unless we' re talking vintage ones). The marlins are more accurate than any lever guns I' ve seen, and beat out a lot of hunting bolt actions I' ve handled, they' re rock solid too. Marlin gives awesome customer service in the event that you run over your gun with your truck (I say that because that' s the only way you' re going to break it!!)