I have a idea of having a rifle made for hunting but don't care for the newer High Walls and much prefer the look of the receiver on the original Winchester. My question, is will the original Highwall withstand the pressure of the 307 wcf cartridge?

A Winchester High Wall should stand up to pretty much whatever you can chamber it for. The Winchester factory used high wall actions to pressure test loads well into the 1960s. If I were going to use it on a high pressure cartridge I would use a blued action instaed of a color cased one. Other than that I don't see a real safety issue.

40 Rod

I think the .307 Win is a good choice for the Hi-Wall, very few rifles will out-shoot the .307 [.308] cartridge.  leadball

I thought of using the 30-40 Krag, but I'm tired of trying to find brass for all my rifles. I have a 25-20 ss and a 218 Bee that I reload for and have to constantly keep an eye open for brass. I tried to see if 30-40 brass was available only to find out that it was "seasonable" and "out of stock" everywhere I looked. while 307 brass was readably available.

You can get 30/40 brass, In fact I have a hundred or so you can have.   Consider that a hundred cases will be a lifetime supply for a single shot hunter. 

This is my personal opinion but for what it's worth. Use a modern caliber might as well buy a Ruger # 1.  307 is easy but if the rifle was put up for resale as a 307 no doubt it would be stripped for the action, do a  nice job in origional caliber and it may well stay intact.

Boats

You guys may be right and I'm re-thinking my choices. But, is the 30-40 capable of good accuracy? I've read that it is not known for it's ability to give fine accuracy. I've also read that the original rifleing was set up for very heavy bullets for caliber size, something like 200gr or 220gr. Has anyone here had an original? And, how was it in the accuracy department? The reason I ask is I'm getting ready to go to the Baltimore Gun show in March and they almost always have at least one original Highwall in 30-40 cal.

I'd vote for the 30-40 Krag as well.  While more load data may be available for the .307 Winchester (the rimmed equivalent of the .308), the 30-40 has more history in the model 1885, and can easily be loaded to equal or exceed .308 ballistics in a strong action.  (Keeping in mind the caveat above about firing pin size and hole diameter.)  Case capacity is about equal to the .308 (actually I think its about a grain more), and several loading manuals have data for "plus-p" performance in suitable actions.  Currently I have a Ruger #3 in 30-40 and find the cartridge mild to shoot and very accurate in my rifle.  While Rugers have a somewhat spotty record for ultimate accuracy, my own #3 will shoot  3-shot groups of factory 180 gr consistently into less than an inch at 100 yards (in fact, with two boxes of Remingtons shot from the bench, I have not had a 3-shot group exceed one inch.)  The 1 in 10" twist of my factory barrel will accurately shoot everything up to the original load 220 gr round nose bullets, and will equally handle the current long-for-caliber super bullets like the Barnes Triple-Shok.  In fact some of these new and extraordinarily long bullets may excel in the 30-40 because of its long case neck which can adequately hold the bullet without having it intrude significantly into the case body.

Much hunting history has been made with America's first smokeless cartridge, and all of North America's big game successfully taken.  Give it serious consideration.

Lowaller  (Bill)