When choosing a rifle for a specific hunting application do you consider the configuration or the caliber of the rifle to be more important?

Example: For a rifle for thick cover/woods/brush whitetail hunting would you rather be carrying a lever action .243Win carbine or a bolt action .358Win with a 24" barrel? Conversely, for varmint hunting would you rather have a lever action .22-250 carbine or a bolt action .35 Whelen?

I understand that these examples are extreme and I meant to exagerate, but the idea is that one rifle has the preferable configuration while the other has the preferable cartridge. If you were going to make a compromise from the ideal, would you rather make it in the cartridge or the design of the rifle? Let me get a few responses and I will give a little more background to exactly why I am asking this question.

Thanks,
Bob

I use a bolt action rifle with a 26" barrel for all of my hunting and I take just as much or more game than the majority of hunters.I feel familiarity with ones rifle is more of an advantage than changing between several guns for different conditions.

For my type of hunting in Alaska, I chose a rifle that would resist rust, and with enough punch to efficiently kill any Alaska game. I only have and use one big game rifle for all my hunting.

The rifle is a Ruger M77 MK-II, stainless, with a synthetic stock, topped with a Leupold Vary-X III, 2.5-8x. I mostly use 230 to 250-grain bullets, but I also handload a few with 275-grain A-Frame bullets for those times where I may need the biggest punch a close range.

Cartridge first, configuration second. I agree with Hot Core, and own most of the different action types. IMO it is possible to achieve the requisite accuracy from any action type for hunting although some present challenges that are not practical to resolve. It does no good to have a sub MOA 25-20 when you're looking at a prairie dog 475 yards away, nor does that accuracy help when you're about to become a Happy Meal.

After decades of climbing the steep hills in VT and looking for game where the visiblity is about 75 yards maybe a little more I select the bullet first that is suited to the game. Of course it must be going fast enough. Large flat nosed bullets are better than small bullets that don't penetrate thru. This covers all situations. There are no compromises.

The most difficult shots are shooting fast at moving game. I have carried heavy long rifles for such hunting for the fun of it. One does not need the internet to find out that they make no sense.

I thought that after all the tests and the discussions on these boards that everyone knew by now that there are no good brush busting bullets.Large flat nosed bullets are no better at penetrating branches than pointed bullets or even smaller diameter bullets.Extensive testing has shown that all bullets are affected by striking objects and in tests recently published in petersons hunting the bullets affected the least were a pointed .338" bullet and a .223" bullet.The big flat nosed bullets out of a 44 mag did not do well in these tests.

I thought by now everyone knew that Ferrari's didn't fare well against Kenworth's in head on collisions either.

Have you ever seen a Kenworth after a head on with a VW? Not much is left that can be called servicable. While the VW is smashed beyond recognition, The Kenworth will be left in a crumpled heap on the side ofthe road also. Now if you want to talk survivability, that is an entire different discussion.