Ha - a subject dear to my heart. Down here in New Zealand our hunting on public lands is mostly in the Mountains, and many people hunt by driving to a public hut, and day hunting "up" from there. Here we call backpacking "tramping" and hence an online name I use in several forums is "Armed Tramper", and by that I mean I walk in the mountains with rifle in hand. It (this mindset) leads me well off the "beaten path" so one tends to see places and country few other people venture into. My rifle is carried a lot and shot very little. It must feel like a part of me whether in my hand pushing through the forest, or slung across my back whilst clinging to a crag ( I'm not so good at the crags these days).

While not disagreeing that a kipplauf can be a fine solution, I prefer a bolt action repeater.

To my mind the absolute epitomy of the light stalking rifle is a Mauser Kurz in 250-3000, in any of the Model B pattens. However it can take half a lifetime to either find or afford such a rifle, and recently I've been considering alternatives.

If I was a young fellow I think I'd find a Swedish M96 and build a rifle on it. The 6.5x55 is a perfect cartridge for anything you'd meet in the woods in NZ (or North America, Europe, Australia) where you are not hunting a specifically big animal I.e. bear etc. The small ring intermediate action of the M96 is strong, slim and very smooth. It can be made into a wonderful sporter. I don't have anything against the modern equivalents such as the Remington Model 7 etc. but I like to see folks at least thinking about commissioning a rifle if not "building" it themselves.