Thanks all for the input. I was hoping to hear that the BAR worked flawlessly and never jammed . However, I guess that's not being realistic. As mentioned in my first post the reason for considering the auto-loader is recoil reduction. If I were to go with something other than an auto-loader then it would be a bolt. I know a .308 would be a nice soft shooter but for the area we hunt .308 would be marginal at best with fairly long and possible quartering shots and the need to put the animal down immediately. A wounded moose running off a couple hundred yards into the thickest bush/brush you can imagine would not be a desirable situation. This girl is not unaccustomed to shooting and handles a 12 gauge quite nicely as well as light caliber center fire rifle and high caliber handgun so maybe I'll see how she does with the 30.06 bolt. Thanks again. gg.