My wife owns a Savage 99 lever in .300 Savage. She swears by that rifle and has owned it forever. I just kind of pooh-poohed both the rifle and the cartridge.
Well...one day I took it to the range on a preseason sight in mission and....by gosh she was right. ( Kind of scary when your better half is right.) I put that rifle through its paces and it impressed me. Yes I know that the .300 Savage is a modified pre-.308 308. But it is an good round though underemphasized. I worked up a 180 gr load for it that shoots so well it is scary.
To make a long story short..I now have two of my own in .300 Savage. It is probably the best lever action ever designed and undoubtedly the strongest. It has no peers as a saddle gun if you are a horse hunter. (those bolt actions will wear a scar on your leg in a hurry unless you stow them butt forward.) It will outperform a 30-30 and give an 06 a run for the money.
The savage will never replace the swede mauser in my affections...but if you can pick one up at the right price I recommend you do it...you will be pleasantly surprised. This is one situation where I was happy to be wrong.

swede