Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 308 and 338 Marlin Express ?

I'll throw an oar in the water. There does not seem to be much traffic on this thread.

I don't own a 308 Marlin Express, but I like to dabble in the same area. I deliberately shied away from the round, because it looked like an orphan waiting to happen from the day it came out. I could be wrong, but I am not sure Marlin is even making rifles chambered in it anymore.

First off, let me address the impetus for the round. There is a well-populated spectrum of rifle 30-something between 30-30 WIN and 300 Magnum. They all kill deer and their ilk just fine as long as you know your own limits. Me? I started off with 30-06 and loved it. I tried 30-30 WIN briefly back in 2002, and just was not all that impressed. I was looking for something between the two that would drop a whitetail at normal ranges without all the muss and fuss of a 30-06. I liked the lever action. I loved the Marlin 336, but the 30-30 round just did not blow my skirts up.

My choice back in 2003 was the Savage 99 in 308 WIN. I deliberately downloaded it so that it would function more like a hot 300 Savage, ane Viola! (How did she get in here?) That became my ideal #1 deep woods deer rifle. If they had offered something close to it in Marlin 336, I would have snatched it up in a flash.

So why didn't I lunge for the first Marlin 308 Express when it came out? For the same reason I didn't try to buy a .307 Winchester. How many .307 Winchester rifles do you see? In 2003, I picked the .308 WIN over a .300 Savage for exactly the same reason. In 2003, it looked like the .300 Savage was on its way out. Why in 2007, would I want another .30-something orphan?

The other thing about .308 Marlin Express is that it relies on a gimmick bullet. If you want the promised results of the rifle, you have to buy the fancy rubbery tipped rounds. I have no problem with the FTX. I've played with them in the 30-30 platform. What I will say is that the LEVERevolution powder does the majority of the heavy lifting in the system. When you have a gimmick powder and a gimmick bullet, the resulting round is destined to be talked about in the past tense.

Performance wise, 308 Marlin Express is in a good niche. 160 grainers are doing 2600 fps and change at the muzzle. The 307 is also right there at 26xx, the 300 Savage is only 25xx and the 308 WIN is 2700+. The deer will not tell the difference inside 150 yards. Just for reference, the 30-30 WIN is more like 23xx fps.

My 308 WIN, when all was done, with 165 grain bullets over H4895 is right there too at 2600 fps. Out of treestand, in the deep woods, I'm positively enthralled with it. It is always out with me on The Opener. As it has happened, I only shoot big bucks with it, and they all drop close enough that I could stand in their tracks and see the carcass. I was thinking basically the same thing as Marlin, but I did it with Savage 99 hardware.

The 338 Marlin Express was supposed to be an ersatz 30-06 in a lever action. Frankly it does not come close to that ideal in a deer hunter's way of looking at things. There are better ways of launching a 200 grain bullet. It was meant for bigger game. Someone else can fill you in on the details. It fell off my radar a decade ago.