What do you think of a .357 lever rifle for home defense and possibly taking game in sparse times?
Works well, easy to load for, ammo is common, good to 150 yards.
I have one, it is fun, but mostly a woods rifle because of the range.
If I had the extra money, an AR-15 has extra range, works about as well for taking game in tough times, and has extra intimidation value. One nice thing about the .357, is you can load very quiet loads (light .38 types) and they will still work well.
Good point on the ‘quiet loads’ ... I build ARs and they are very easy to attach suppressors to, but the super sonic rounds are never ‘soft’. I have a CMMG conversion kit which when used with a suppressor would be very ‘soft’, especially with 60 grain Aguila rounds. I have a garage range for .22 calibers and the 60 grain subs run just fine in the latest (impingement) build I did. Haven’t tried them in the Piston ARs I have though.