For me it’s got to load from the side and eject from the side. These two guns , .357 pistol and rifle, are my grab and go guns. I have a 98 round badoleer to go with them. As a good buddy observed if the feces hits the rotating oscillator and you go walking down the road with your full tacticool AR and military best with mag pockets everywhere you become an automatic target. If you go walking down the road with your cowboy pistol and rifle you get a smile and aren’t taken overly serious. Just as effective without the bling. Just one persons opinion
My vote would be for the Henry steel version carbine. The brass octagon is way to heavy imo; a buddy has one and I have shot it. After shooting his I bought the steel carbine version with the bigger loop lever. It is a great little handy carbine and tons of fun to shoot. Got it in November ‘17 and killed three does using Federal 180g loading the Swift Aframe bullet. 3 shots 3 kills from 50-70 yards. I have a Vortex venom red dot on it to keep it handy. The front tube loading is ok...just a bit different than traditional loading gate at the receiver...