marlin308mxlr

Marlin has come out with the 308 Marlin Express. The 308 Marlin Express has ballistics that are comparable to the .308 Winchester. This means we know have a lever action rifle capable of reaching out and touching that buck at 400 yards.

Since this is a new blog and most of you don’t know me, I’m gonna start early with a confession. I love lever action rifles. I can still remember as a pre-Kindergarten kid looking through my Dad’s Sears and Western Auto catelogs at the rifles and drooling over the lever actions. I can also remember looking at his Glenfield Model 30 30-30 on the gun rack of his bedroom and dreaming of the day I could shoot it.

I’ve probably killed more deer with a lever action rifle than with any other type of weapon, even bolt guns. Oh yeah, most of those deer were taken with that Glenfield Model 30! I have that gun now and it goes with me when my more expensive and better shooting bolt guns stay at home.

The Marlin 308MXLR

Marlin has chambered two rifles for the 308 Marlin Express. The first one is 308MXLR. This lever gun features a 24 inch stainless barrel with a full pistol grip and a black-grey two toned stock. Sharp looking gun. You can check it out by clicking here.

This new lever action weighs in at 7 pounds and comes with a 5 shot tubular magazine. It goes without saying that this new rifle comes with buckhorn sites and is tapped for a scope.

The Marlin 308MX

The Marlin 308MX is the blued version of the 308MXLR plus it comes with the standard pistol gripped Walnut stock. It also comes with a 22 inch barrel instead of the 24 incher on the MXLR.

The 308 Marlin Express

As I stated earlier, this new round will have nearly the performance of the .308 Winchester. According to Hornady, the 308 Marlin Express had to have a case shorter than the .307 in order to use a longer bullet, thus giving the 308 a higher BC.

Developed as a medium pressure round that equals the power and range of the .308 Winchester, the .308 Marlin Express features a 160 grain bullet and a muzzle velocity of 2660 fps, making it a perfect round for bagging a deer up to 400 yards away for hunters who desire a more challenging shot since most deer are shot at 150 yards away and under. While the .308 Marlin Express round performs similarly to the .308 Winchester round, the latter round’s cartridge is too long for Marlin lever actions and too high of a maximum average pressure, which could be a problem for rifle performance. With the .308 Marlin Express, Marlin lever action rifle users can rest assured they have a proper round suitable for hunting everything up to and including the size of an elk.

The ballistics on this round are excellent. I’ve also been hearing good things about the Leverevolution bullets that Hornady has been cranking out for other lever calibers like the 30-30 Winchester and .35 Remington, so I have no doubt the 308 Marlin Express will be more than capable of dropping your buck under 400 yards.

It’s truly a reliable cartridge that makes one wonder what Marlin and Hornady will come up with next.