I'm gonna tote a real lever gun almost every time I go... It will be a 307 Win, 356 or most likely my .358.

You can keep the dern 45-70. Been there, done that, shot several deer, even literally poured the insides out of them through the golf ball size hole it left. The effectiveness is not a question.

But the ballistics nothing short of just plain suck.

I have been completely perplexed almost my entire life. The best cartridges chambered in lever guns never took off. There are many reasons, one being magnum mania with the .358 and years later when they introduced the Big Bore 94's they were originally not Angle Eject so the "new" wore off that before they made them where you could put a scope on them. The 94's sales were beginning to suffer at that point before they made the change as scoped rifles were becoming the norm. Marlin chambered in .356 but at that time it was old news and never took off, ammo was expensive and hard to get in a world with no Internet. Might could find some in a mail order catalog or get some special ordered by your local gun dealer but that was about it. If you were a real shooter you knew about Midway and could have got some from Larry, but the majority of the world was still getting their ammo at a Mom and Pop shop and Wal-Mart or K-Mart

Marlin comes out the the .308 Marlin Express and we all know what happened there.... Remington. It has taken them 10 years to just get a .30-30 made correctly.

Been there and done that with all these cartridges. Take my advice and if you fancy lever guns and come across one of these oddball calibers DO NOT let it pass you by.