Fish and Coyote gave you good advice.
I have a 22� blue 308MX. This rifle is not quite a .307 Winchester but it is very close. Out to 240 yards there is not a great deal of difference between the cartridges. Past this distance the .308 Marlin Express has a clear advantage that grows with distance.
The Marlin 308MX has a small but clear advantage in accuracy over my Winchester Big Bore rifle with both handloads loaded to full power and factory ammunition. The Marlin 308MX uses a floating forend with nylon strips between the wood and magazine tube. There are other small differences in the fit of the locking bolt that probably have a lot to do with the better accuracy from the Marlin rifle.
The handloader must work hard to equal the accuracy of the Hornady factory ammunition. Your handloads will shoot with the factory ammunition but you cannot just assemble handloads and expect them to perform as well as the Hornady ammunition.
I mixed .308 Marlin Express data in the .307 Winchester thread on the Beartooth forum. If you compare them you will see there is little real difference between the 20� 307 Winchester and the 22� .308 Marlin Express. The 24� barrel should narrow the gap a little more. � This link
http://shootersforum.com/showthread.htm?t=37467The second link is to the .308 Marlin Express forums on the Marlin Owners board. It is worth cruising through the various threads on the .308ME forum as there is some interesting information in them.
http://www.marlinowners.com/board/viewforum.php?f=60&sid=32ada00d8cd5dd894d9b80e30544b7e3After reading the latest issue of Handloader and Dave Scovill�s column: �Branding� I intend to write him about the .308 Marlin Express. I believe Dave has not given much thought to the .308ME cartridge and its Marlin rifle. The .300 Savage and .307 Winchester are obsolete and their rifles are out of production. A hunter looking for a lever-action rifle in this power class now has more options than the Browning � which not all hunters like. I believe there is a market for the .308ME and believe Marlin/Hornady were pretty smart to step up and produce a very interesting product. With the return of the Winchester Model 94 I certainly hope someone at Winchester is smart enough to realize there is a market for the Model 64 type rifle in .307 Winchester. The addition of a Model 64 type rifle would make for a real horse race between Winchester and Marlin and give us some great internet threads to boot.