Home Forums Lever Action Central Marlin 336 Lever Actions new .308 Marlin Express

Simply amazing.........

I'm thinking he was planted here by Rick to keep things interesting!

Good one Rick, you got us! haha! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/help.gif" alt="" />

BTW, I'll keep dropping these PA deer with my .257 Bob and 7mm-08.

VaNimrod, you are the one baiting the swampster...I think he's having some fun with you. Who cares? There are plenty of .45/70 rifles on the shelf for him to use.

Good thing Marlin did not try to re-invent the .307 Win, because we all know that was a failure. This new one fills that critical void between the .30-30 Imp and the .300 Sav and the .307 win...whatever that is.

Lucky for me, I have a sweet vintage Savage 99 FWT in the original 150gr-at-2600fps caliber and am not in need of an upgrade. What a relief. If I need a new levergun it will probably be a Marlin, but I'll jump right to the .35 or .444 to avoid the tricky stuff.

Just a quick update for those that are interested. I just spoke to customer service at Marlin. The lady I spoke to, said that the .308 Marlin express rifles will not be available until May or June. I dont know if I can wait that long. I was really hoping that they would be available a lot sooner.

Swampman , glad to see you like Elmer Keith . And thats about all the good I can say for you !!!!

As far as gun writers are concerned Jack O'Conner was head and shoulders above Ol Elmer . And I liked Keith !!!!

As far as tiny PA whitetails are concerned , funny thing I killed thre PA WT's with 3 shots from a teeny tiny 260 REM .

In the state of VA I have killed the following numbers of whitetails ;

1 with the 243 WIN

27 with the 260 REM

1 with the 270 WIN

11 with the 7mm-08

14 with the 280 REM

26 with the 7mm REM MAG

9 with the 264 WIN MAG

6 with the 25-06

1 with the 270WSM

Took a pair of mulies in MT with 2 shots from the 7mm REM MAG .

Thats 98 deer and 91 were one shot kills .

First deer I ever saw killed was shot by my maternal grandfather with a 222 REM at 92 yards . One shot behind the ear and the deer dropped on the spot . Not that I advocate the 222 for deer . But that was his only high powered rifle and he used it for many many years on groundhogs . So shooting a deer in the head at 100 yards was no big deal for him .

As far as the 308 Marlin Express is concerned I support it wholeheartdly !!!!!!

Sure there are lots of other things that can do the same thing .

SO WHAT !!!!

I own and shoot just about every caliber Marlin has ever chambered for and quite a few they haven't .
And you can bet your ass that I'll have one or two of the 308 Marlin Express rifles when they finally come out .

As far as brass is concerned , thats no big deal . If I have a couple hundred pieces I'll be able to wear out two rifles before the brass gives up the ghost .

Do I advocate speed demon rifles sure I do . I've loaded for most of the Ultra Mags , Short Ultra's , Win Short Mags and Win Super Shorts , as well as the 204 , 220 Swift , 264 WIN mag and 7mm STW .

But I also like old levers with light to medium cast bullet loads as well . I cast and load for many pre 1900 Marlin's . Matter of fact even killed a pair of WT does with pre 1900 rifles shooting my cast bullets this past season.

Anyway before I digress to much , what I'm trying to say is that I like them all .

And if Marlin see's fit to bring this new cartridge out , I'm gonna except it with open arms . Not because I feel I NEED it , but because I wanna play with it a bit .

Seems to me everyone should be glad Marlin is willing to try and do things to stay in buisness . Which is more then can be said for that now defunct company formerly of New Haven CT !!!

I'm sure there are quite a few that don't agree with me and so be it . But I also feel if you don't care for the cartridge , move on ! And for petes sake give the thing a chance to come out and be tried before you start to bad mouth it . But then again you shouldn't bad mouth it if you haven't personally tried it !!!!

I'm not going to say swampman1 is completely correct. Reasoning is somewhat off/incomplete IMO. But the heart of his argument I think is based around some pretty basic stuff.

1. As bullet velocity increases, smaller flaws in the bullet can cause the bullet to fail.

2. With most popular cartridges out there, as caliber goes up the velocity decreases.

3. A big bullet that fails will do more damage than a small bullet that fails.

So by deduction, smaller calibers will have a higher instance of bullet failure with little to no displacement of important stuff. Of course there are exceptions, sense thats a very generic statement. Not many people (if any) have enough experience with enough calibers to really make informed decisions except through deduction. You can use second hand information, but I wouldn't trust it much farther than deduction.

Thats how I look at things though. For general deer hunting I'll take a 120 grain bullet in a 250 savage (2600 FPS) over a 150 grain bullet in a .300 WM (3400 FPS) for deer. But put the same 150 grain bullet in a .300 savage (2600 FPS) and I would take it over either.

the swampster ain't a bad guy.

he's just, uh, set in his ways ...