Home Forums Lever Action Central Marlin 336 Lever Actions 308 hornady. 338 hornady

Any info on these? Thanks captdavid

May we assume you are asking about Hornady ammo in 308 and 338 Marlin Express ?

Yes, but as much as a general idea about the round and the rifles they're available in. Thanks captdavid

Marlin owners forum. I used to go there a lot, but the pop up beasts would lock my phone up like a nuns nasty.

I have an early 22” barrel 308MX. Mine will shoot under the magic inch at 100-yards from the bench using factory Hornady ammunition. This is the most accurate out of the box lever action rifle I have seen. There are several other 22” blue steel and 24” stainless 308 Marlin Express rifles at the gun club and they all exhibit excellent accuracy
I have heard the merger with Remington did not help the situation but I have not run across any of the Remington Marlins on the range or in the hunting field.

Marlin took a bit of extra care fitting the vertical locking bolt into the slot in the sliding bolt and this is one of the areas everyone works on when seeking accuracy from the Marlin rifles.
Marlin also used nylon rub strips under the forend and fitted the butstocks with a bit of extra care. I believe the floating forend has quite an affect on the rifle.
There is no doubt the care taken in inletting the butstock to the rear of the receiver has improved accuracy.

The Hornady .308 Marlin Express factory ammunition I have shot has been exceptional. The shooter has no hesitation in saying: “Watch this…” as he sets down to shoot groups with the 308MX rifle.
The handloader has to work to equal the accuracy of the factory ammunition.
I have made .308ME brass from .270, .30-06, .444 Marlin and .307 Winchester cases and the cases which have received a bit of extra attention – bottoming the primer pockets, uniforming the flash holes and in some cases reaming the necks – will equal the accuracy delivered from handloads using factory brass. But the handloader needs to use care assembling his handloads to equal the accuracy of the Hornady factory ammunition.

This internet has a lot of stories of quality issues with the rifle which came from the early Remington production runs so I cannot speak about those rifles. The early Marlin built rifles are certainly worth having.

I thought I would separate the rifle from the hunting. The .308 Marlin Express kills our little West Texas deer and pigs about as well as any leveraction cartridge.
The 160-grain FTX bullet acts a bit different from some other cup and core bullets at close range. Under 75-yards or so the FTX bullet opens quickly, tends to wad up in a ball and exits from most across the body shots leaving a pleasing exit wound. The few I have recovered had expanded back over the bullet shank but still managed to penetrate an impressive distance. We have shot several meat and cull deer with the load.
Beyond 100-yards the results are more what you expect to see with traditional expansion and no trail of lead following the bullet. To be fair I have not seen a large quantity of lead in the wound channel with the FTX bullet.

At close range the FTX bullet will blow the hair from the entrance wound in an approximate one inch circle. It leaves a strange entrance wound.
I have posted a few pictures of these on the Beartooth bullets Shooters forum. Its not a big deal but it is different and I have not seen this result from plastic tip bullets shot from other rifles.
Velocity runs as you would expect in the 22” barrel, about 2,600 fps with the 160-grain bullet Hornady factory load. This is about 100- to 150-fps faster than I load the 170-grain bullet for my average .30-30AI hunting load in the 20” barrel and about 50-fps faster than my 170-grain .307 Winchester hunting handloads, again in the 20” barrel.
The .308 Marlin Express is right about where it needs to be in the traditional open hammer, tubular magazine leveraction rifle. It delivering excellent performance on game, light recoil and the rifle handles fine when walking, sitting or in the ground blinds.
The browning BLR and the Henry Long Ranger are the principle competitors when it comes to new rifles.

Splitting up your thread between two forums confuses my thoughts. Old guys like me think of a post on a different thread and post on the wrong forum. Many of us look for the new posts and we see them all without going to the individual forums.

Keep in mind, the .30-30 does fine for most deer hunting. But the realities are there is a bit more pressure on public land hunters caused by greater numbers of hunters and many states offering only a selection of hunting periods rather than giving the hunter the ability to hunt all through the season.
With these realities in mind a little extra power while still shooting at woods ranges is a good thing. With the .308 Marlin Express you are not necessarily limited in your bullet selection. The wonderful Speer Hot Core 170-grain bullet driven to 2,500 fps + in the .308ME will give you a point blank range of 240-yards or so using an 8” target circle. Set your sights at 200 yards, put hair under the cross hairs or bead and you will be successful. You will appreciate the extra foot pounds of energy.
If you want a new in the box traditional, open hammer, tubular magazine leveraction rifle, the Marlin reamed for the .308ME is a good package and you have the option of excellent factory ammunition or many combinations of bullet and powder for the handloader.

Not to hijack my own thread see my thread longer barreled lever actions on 'Ask the gunwriters' captdavid