You have the 338ME mixed up with the 338 Federal.For woods range hunting a 30/30 is plenty gun.My grandpas big gun was a Winchester 92 in 32/20.He killed everything from rabbits to Moose with it.
Look, I'm not trying to malign the 30-30 WIN. I just did not have good experiences with it. A lot of people have a deep attachment to this chambering, and I'm not going to say they are wrong. Coming from 20 years' experience with a 30-06, I tried 30-30 and decided I wanted something more. What I'm trying to explain was the impetus that drove me to try a slightly downloaded 308 WIN in a lever gun. It seems to me Marlin followed the same thinking.
I could be dead wrong about the 338 ME, but I seem to remember reviews when it came out claiming 30-06-class performance out of a lever.
These new Marlin chamberings came out as I was answering a lot of newbie questions for D&DH. My advice was to shy away from these Marlin Express rounds until they had a better following. Truthfully, I did not think they would last as long as they did.
In essence, what you have is great platform, the Marlin 336, and the question is how to keep folks' interest in it. If you're not into the nostalgia of 30 WCF and the whole lever thing, there's not much to hold a newbie's fascination. 308 WIN is THE 800 lb gorilla in this room. We're in the middle of arguing the worth of 7mm-08 in other threads, and though it's a dandy round as well, 308 WIN sucks considerable life out of it as well. The FTX/LEVERevoloution thing was a good try, but it was too late. Marlin was bought out by Remington.
If you have the old 300 Savage that is not quite dead yet on the low end of the spectrum and 308 WIN and 7mm-08 on the other drawing away sales, what is going to make folks go out and buy the 308 ME? The answer, as history has proved, not much. The 338 ME just seems like too much recoil for too little performance to me. Maybe someone else can explain it to me.
I would also fault the perceived drop in quality in Marlin product as the buyout occured for killing off the ME chamberings. For a few years, Marlin had a stink on them that is just now starting to clear.
