Home Forums Lever Action Central Marlin 336 Lever Actions Why did Marlin not just use the .307 Winchester instead of the .308 Marlin Express

I'm sure this subject has been brought up before but I can't help but ask this & the search engine can be difficult to pin down what you're looking for.

Why did Marlin make a new cartridge when is seems that the 307 Winchester was perfectly adequate for the task and has quite a bit more case volume? Does this have something to do with save working pressures or the tube length getting an extra round?

I read somewhere that a guy converted his 336 30-30 to a .307 and reloads using the Hornady Leverevolution bullets. This would seem to me like a great hunting round in a Lever action, just slightly ahead of the ME. Someone fill me in on this, what am I missing?

And is the .308 Marlin Express (ME) destined to become obsolete like the .307. The only thing I see that is has working for it are Hornady's proprietary powder, but if that becomes public, the .307 would out perform the .308 ME.