They may not be a "cool" as some of the full autos. But I'd rank my old Trapdoors, and 1873 and 1892 Winchesters at the top of my list. There's just nothing to compare it to. Yeah you can get repros, but the repros aren't 100+ years old, and they haven't been through the Indian Wars, etc.
A few years ago I hunted exclusively with the Trapdoors or 1892 Winchester. The .300 Mag never came out of the safe. Most fun I've had hunting in a long time. Last weekend of the season I let a buck walk because I forgot to bring binos with me, and wasn't sure if he was a shooter yet or not. The buck was unmistakable with almost bleached white horns. Well my buddy showed me a picture of it, that night, from a trail camera from earlier that year. I'm still kicking myself. Nice 16"-18" spread with good length. I couldn't see the spread because he was crossing the field and not coming at me. Needless to say, I've been taking the modern weapons ever since.
Wyman