As someone who has been hunting a great deal of dangerous game as part of Problem Animal Control work for the last 48 years , here is my approach to this matter .
I personally own and exclusively use a control round feed rifle for most of my hunting applications ( a custom made .458 Winchester Magnum which is built on a Winchester Enfield Model 1917 action ) . However , I have used all manners of rifles ( either borrowed or rented ) for my hunting applications whenever I am hunting in foreign countries . This includes a good amount of push feed rifles .
It must be remembered that the development of push feed rifles has come a long way since the 1950s , when Remington first made them popular ( by introducing the Model 721 , 722 and 725 which preceded the Model 700 ) . One cannot make a fair assessment of 21st century push feed rifles , by simply looking at push feed designs from the 1950s - 1970s .
I would not hunt dangerous game with a heavy calibre Remington Model 700 or a post 1964 Winchester Model 70 or a post 1962 Browning Safari . The extractor on these designs is too small and unreliable , when large calibre shell cases need to be reliably extracted in a hurry . However , I would not hesitate to use a Blaser R-8 for hunting dangerous game . I have hunted my largest Himalayan ibex with a Blaser R-8 in .338 Winchester Magnum ( employing a 250 grain Nosler Partition soft nosed factory load ) and ( while a Himalayan Ibex is by no means dangerous game ) I would not hesitate to use a Blaser R-8 in .416 Remington Magnum to hunt marauding Royal Bengal tigers .
I have observed that most currently manufactured European rifles ( such as Sako , Sauer , Blaser or Steyr Mannlicher ) employ a push feed action , these days . If the issues of reliability were too great , then I doubt that any of these companies would be thriving today . Personally speaking , I am an old soul and I prefer the Enfield Model 1917 action ( simply because I have had extremely successful results with this action , even since 1976 ) .