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.
What do you think of a .357 lever rifle for home defense and possibly taking game in sparse times?