There is certainly nothing wrong with the 7mm/'08 you mentioned, but I don't know of a pump in that caliber. A .250 Savage or a .257 Roberts would serve you well also. Both are pleasant to shoot, very accurate, and kill deer a lot better than a .30/30! I believe Remington once made some 760 pumps in .257 Roberts, and you can still find people selling M99 Savages chambered for the .250 Savage.

But i think the problem with the 257 and 250 will be hard to find ammo.

Ammo is easy to find for the 250 and 257 in big sporting goods stores but out in the sticks it would be different. One could order a good batch at a time from Midway or one of the other bigger outfits though.

Perhaps. It is not hard to find around NY or PA. But I guess this is not a problem I give much consideration to, since I never use factory ammo for anything!

.270 Win. Good luck.

25.06 Rem

After packing my Win. Mod. 70 (270win.) around for 25+ years I decided I was finally ready for a lighter rifle. (Actually, this was the only excuse I could come up with to buy a new hunting rifle)
So, last year after hunting season I started looking around for a light wieght 243 and had settled on either a Ruger or Remington and was leaning towards the Rem. when my shooting partner came up with a Win. feather wieght in 257 Roberts.
Well I thought about it for as long as it takes to open a wallet and pull out the cash
I'm hoping to be able to put a synthetic stock on it between now and hunting season but if not I'm still going to enjoy packing around another classic.

Model 7 in 7mm08.

If I had it to do all over again, I might have chosen it over my A-Bolt in .270.

Even lighter recoil, easier to handle and pack around, with just as much punch.

Based on what you've mentioned, A .444Marlin Marlin levergun might suit your ticket...I know it's not a pump, but you mentioned an interest in leverguns, the .444's got more stank than the .30-30, makes for a LOT better deer rifle in my opinion, but it's a lot more shootable than the .30-06...I'd also suggest a .44mag in the Marlin 1894, I get basically the same performance in the field as a .30-30 (a little more aching trajectory, but they're both good to 150-200yrds on deer if you do your part), BUT, the .44mag uses about 1/3 the powder, or costs half as much if you're buying factory loads (I've bought Winchester Super-X .44mag 240grn half jacketed soft points for $11 a 50brick, when $11 a 20box is a decent price on similar quality .30-30rnds=better than half the price for .44mag). I suggested the .444 because you seem like you're looking for more power than the .30-30, as opposed to equal power from a different round.

The .45-70 Marlin 1895Guide gun might also fit the bill, it's light and handy, and the .45-70 is an awesome hunting round, IT IS MY OPINION that it's more shootable than the .30-06, it's kind of like the .454Cassul vs. the .480R, the .480 and the .45-70 may actually kick a little harder by the numbers, but it's more of a shove than a kick, the .30-06 or .454C are lighter recoiling but kick like hell...So basically the .30-06 feels like a pretty hard kick to the shoulder, while the .45-70 feels like a really hard shove, it might just be me, but I've ALWAYS found the .45-70 to be MUCH more shootable.

I'm also not certain, but it seems like when I actually figured the recoil energy of factory ammo in the .45-70 Guide gun, the recoil energy was considerably less than that of typical .30-06 loads (in a Ruger MKII M77 standard).

As long as you are not looking to down animals larger than a whitetail, a 243 will do the job. A 22-250 is also a decient calb.. Many people will say the 22-250 is a little small of a bullet. It has its good and bad points. What you lose in size you gain in accuracy. I have shot lots of deer with a 22-250 and never lost one. I personally like the 30-06 best of all. But it can pop you sometimes. Have you tried different ammo. I know winchesters tend to be less punishing than remington core locks.