My 94 year old FIL gave me his which had been given to him by his grandfather.
The bolt action is like butter. Ammo is usually only available (prior to the current madness) around deer season.
Even though it’s a mid 2K FPS muzzle velocity rifle from the 1890’s, it still fills the freezer.
My favorite rifle is my model 94 Winchester 30-30. Certainly not a high velocity rifle. But they still take a lot of game, are easy to find ammo for, easy to reload, sweet shooting. And if you cast lead bullets and don’t push the load past 2000 fps you can reload it for $.12-15 cents per round. That is cost performance.
If I have something big to take down the model 71 Winchester 348 will do the job. I recently bought some Hornady Leverevolution bullets for it. Have not loaded any of them yet. Was even able to find some new Winchester brass for it. That one is a thumper, range & knockdown.
And think about it. Look at the terminal energy figures for the old Krag and the AR type rifles. At 200 yards, the Krag is accurate and has better terminal energy than .223 ammo.
Speed & mass thing.