Marlin's new levergun: .308 Marlin Express

Marlin Firearms ^ | 1/07 | n/a

[kiriath_jearim]

With ballistics comparable to the 308 Win., this brand new cartridge is the highest performance round ever made for a traditional lever action rifle!

Last year, in partnership with Hornady, Marlin introduced the XLR Series of lever-action rifles, built to take full advantage of the improvements gained with Hornady’s LEVEREVOLUTIONTM spire-pointed flex tip ammunition.

Teaming up once more with Hornady, Marlin announces the debut of two new rifles chambered for the new Hornady 308 Marlin Express, a hot .30 caliber rimmed cartridge designed for maximum velocity, flat trajectory and smashing downrange energy.

The two models chambered for this round are: the blued 308MX with a 22” barrel and walnut stock, and the stainless steel 308MXLR with a 24” barrel and laminated stock.

Both will be available in Spring of 2007!

NEW Model 308MXLR

Available Spring 2007, this new model will be chambered for Hornady’s new ground-breaking 308 Marlin Express. It features a 24" stainless steel barrel, full pistol grip, and black-grey two-tone laminated stock characteristic of all XLR models. Also features the Marlin signature solid-top receiver with side-ejection, adjustable folding semi-buckhorn rear sight, ramp front sight. It is tapped for scope mount.

Caliber 308 Marlin Express

Capacity 5-shot tubular magazine

Action Lever action; side ejection; stainless steel receiver; barrel, lever, trigger guard plate, magazine tube and loading gate. Hammer block safety.

Stock Black/grey laminated hardwood pistol grip stock with fluted comb, cut checkering, deluxe recoil pad; nickel plated swivel studs.

Barrel 24" stainless steel barrel

Twist Rate 1:10" r.h

Sights Adjustable semi-buckhorn folding rear; ramp front sight with brass bead and Wide-Scan® hood. Solid top receiver tapped for scope mount; offset hammer spur (right or left hand) for scope use

Overall Length 42.5"

Weight 7 lbs.

[headstamp]

I think this one will too.

[Neil E. Wright]

Any idea on the price?

According to my gun guy at PimaArms.com, blue about $525, ss lam $650

[headstamp]

Yes, in the Contender carbine and pistol and a 336 Marlin. Excellent brush round in the Marlin lever gun for eastern hunting deer and black bear and pigs out to say 150 or less.

Contender stretches out the range somewhat with the ability of pointed projectiles in a single shot action and loading it to a bit higher pressure than factory rounds.

If you reload, use the Remington factory 200 RN's, they are expressly made for the ballistics of this round in a lever gun. Only drawback is factory rounds are somewhat loaded down due to the Remington 8 and 81 autos still out there to work in the semi auto actions without breaking them.

JMHO FWIW

[headstamp]

You also have the Hornady Evolution ammo out there now I think for this round.

[trussell]

Kewl...thank you for the price :)

[oldenuff2no]

Here is at least one more. I hate to burst everyones bubble but this one come in Mag calibers too.
I think the Marlin will be a good rifle but it is not a new concept.

[elcid1970]

Geez, what a beautiful Model 71! .348 Winchester, right? My dream gun for decades, with the factory swivels & sling, and bolt peep sight.

Had to make do with a Remington 760 in .308. Not bad, tho.

[AnAmericanMother]

It's my daddy's .348 (actually, that's not his, just one that was auctioned online recently - but it looks just like it, it's in prime condition).

He bought it for mama in 1954, they were going to hunt Kodiak bear in Alaska.

He was looking at a Holland & Holland in .375 for himself, then mama turned up pregnant with me.

Every so often, dad turns to me with a sorrowful look and asks, "Why couldn't you wait until I got the H&H?"

Why, indeed? Although reloading for it keeps us fully occupied. Thank goodness an outfit in Wisconsin is turning up new brass, it's hard to find brass now.

[Armedanddangerous]

Not sure what it does that a properly loaded 30-30 marlin doesnt..


I AM going to get a 45-70 Marlin Guide Gun though..this year...

A friend wants me to come to alaska and hunt caribou with him, and I want to go if I can get past this back injury..I figure the Guide Gun is the way to go in AK hunting.

[elcid1970]

Take a brown bear with a .348? I'd be more comfortable with the .375.

I have a classmate who hunts in Africa. Owns inherited fine double rifles. But his `bread & butter' rifle is a pre-64 Model 70 in .375 H&H. Works on everything up to and including buffalo. The `30-30' of Africa.

BTW, I fired his .375 with reduced `Cream of Wheat' loads, then full factory loads. Not that bad.

[AnAmericanMother]

My mama couldn't shoot anything heavier. Even her dove gun is a 28 ga. (I have it now - it's an old Rem 11-48 and it's the best natural pointer ever. I shot skeet with it for years and routinely broke more than 20 - took it out after an 18 year layoff to shoot sporting clays, powdered everything close but ran out of momentum on the long ones. So I had to invest in an 1100 in 20 ga. . . . oh well.) < g >

Dad was going to do the business with the .375. And you're right, that's the bread and butter rifle in Africa, although it's too much for almost any North American game.

[FlyVet]

Having to find the ammo at a local gun store for a bastard caliber can be a pain sometimes, having a .340 Weatherby Magnum taught me that.

Gun nuts are always looking for something new. Rounds like the 30-30, .308, and 30-06 are sooooo old, boring, predictable....and effective, and they are always available at the ol' mom and pop country store.

If I ever take up deer hunting again, that new-fangled .260 Remington looks like the ultimate...but that boring old .308 or 30-06 will knock down anything on this continent, except for being a little iffy for Alaskan Browns.

[Fee]

I preferr the Marlin 1894 lever action carbine chambered to fire .357 mag or .38 cal pistol rounds. Make excellent campanion for the .38 or .357 revolvers. Ammo is plenty and cheaper. Good stopping power too.

[FlyVet]

BTW, I fired his .375 with reduced `Cream of Wheat' loads, then full factory loads. Not that bad.

Depends on your build. I weigh 150 lbs soaking wet. I have fired the .375, .458, and .416 Rigby. Each time, I handed said rifle back to the owner, then wiped the tears from my eyes. Freaking OUCH! 2oz 12 gauge turkey loads I found to be almost as painful.

[river rat]

"BTW, I fired his .375 with reduced `Cream of Wheat' loads, then full factory loads. Not that bad."

Reminds me of the time I took my then 10 year old son to the local range to fire our Ruger Old Army percussion cap & black powder revolvers...

Not wanting to fire more that 30 grains of powder at the 25 yd targets, we would use a volume trimmed nipple that dispensed just that amount - which only half filled the chamber -- so I elected to fill to the top with corn meal and then press the ball into the corn meal until the ball was below flush with top of cylinder. We would then wipe in a bit of grease.

Shooting two stations away from us was a nosy loudmouth that had already pissed me off by his excessive loud talking, rapid fire with junk guns, firing on the wrong targets - and I suspected he was under the influence of something other that good sense.

Well, he heard me ask my son to pass the corn meal to my station -- and uninvited, he approached me and watched me add the cornmeal to my chambers (AFTER THE BLACK POWDER HAD ALREADY BEEN LOADED)-- press the balls into place, install the caps and prepare to fire..

He asked me to confirm that I was really "using" corn meal in my pistol and I answered in the affirmative.

He then informed me that he didn't know that corn meal was an "explosive"....

Without explaining the error of his assumption - I simply said "watch this" -- and fired off 6 flaming and smoking black powder rounds...

He was SHOCKED.... he said he would immediately inform his wife to be a lot more careful with their corn meal!

Stupid bastards are everywhere -- be very afraid..

Semper Fi

[FlyVet]

Heh heh. I happen to own a Ruger Old Army stainless myself, although I haven't shot it in a decade. You can fill that thing full of FFFg, forget the corn meal, seal it with Crisco or petroleum jelly and not worry about it.

Dang, I miss those days, and don't get into it that much anymore. Maybe some of us just mellow too much with age? :(

I'd like to find that fire again, River Rat. Maybe I will. Posts like yours bring back memories.

[Vinnie]

he said he would immediately inform his wife to be a lot more careful with their corn meal!

LOL

I understand if you use self-rising cornmeal that the gun shoots high.

[caveat emptor]

35 Rem. and the 30-30 Win. are about the same in ballistics.

Depends on how much difference "about the same " means to you.

In the early ‘50s, Marlin advertised this as the “brush-busting .35,” though today we know from exhaustive testing that virtually no bullet can go through heavy brush without being deflected. However, as an active deer hunter in my younger days, I noticed that the .35 seemed to take down white-tails with distinctly more authority than the more popular .30-30. Noted Henry M. Stebbins, one of the great rifle authorities during that period in American firearms history, “…the 336 was not planned as a mountain rifle. Adding the .35 Rem to its lineup made it one of the best-liked rifles for those who want considerably more than .30-30 power, but not high velocity or flat trajectory.”

[caveat emptor]

If you reload, use the Remington factory 200 RN's, they are expressly made for the ballistics of this round in a lever gun.

Thanks for the info. I'm not committed to the .35 Rem, but seems in the ball park for me, and if I can get the one that available locally at a good price, I'll go for it.

[caveat emptor]

I have no experience with the .35 Rem. but what I've read says it's superior to the 30-30.

That seems to be right:
No, the round that made a difference was Marlin’s second most popular in this rifle: caliber .35 Remington. Remington created this cartridge in 1906 for their then-revolutionary Model 8 semiautomatic hunting rifle, and in 1952, Marlin began chambering the Model 336 for it. Throwing a 200 grain soft point bullet at 2210 feet per second, it generated 2170 foot-pounds of energy. With a 170 grain bullet at about the same speed, the .30-30 comes up short by comparison with only 1860 foot-pounds of energy.