Why aren't semi autos more popular for hunting? We had the remington model 8 in .35 rem and the winchester 1907 .351 WSL which are both adequate durr rounds back in 1905/1907. That would have been after 1903 when the NRA started selling 1903s and possibly after the 1892 krag and .30-40 army hit the surplus market but well before the inflection point of WWI when all the conscripts were trained on bolt guns and the market was flooded with WWI surplus bolt guns and ammo
Were the semi autos just too expensive and heavy compared to the surplus rifles? I think only PA and like one other state actually have laws against semi auto hunting