Not so popular anymore? I went to the range yesterday and counted six pump rifles. There are twenty spots where to shoot from over there. Were pump rifles ever really more popular than that (that is a real question, not rhetorical)?
Granted, it is moose season up here and most people there were moose hunters. I guess the pump rifle is either still quite popular among hunters or this was an exceptional sample.
I will admit that when it is less dangerous at the range (when there are not so many hunters who almost never shoot and do not really know how to behave at the range, i.e. when it is not hunting season!), I see a lot less of those, mostly bolt then.
Even suggesting that a pump action attenuates the recoil sounds like blasphemy to my ears. My 760 Remington in .30-06 is painful, that is the best word I can think of to describe it. I have shot other rifles in .30-06 which were way easier on the shoulder. I guess I would fear that rifle if its recoil was not reduced... Seriously, a pump mechanism reducing the recoil? Please explain that theory.
As fast as a semi? Well, not in a hundred years, no. Want to compare with this or that pro who shoots so fast on YouTube? Have him try both and see. Is a pump fast enough? Sure. Three shots in a fast running animal for a very average shooter? I doubt it. I have done that with a semi: once on a white tail deer at 130 yards, once on a black bear at 30 yards. We found one hole in the deer, three holes in the bear and they both died quickly. I used the same BAR .270 Win. rifle for both. I am positively and absolutely certain I could not have done it with the pump rifle.