Fwee Buwwets!!
This is what you need to take down a charging Grizzly, other than that, maybe a moose.
Gotta love a gun that leaves a bruise.
Reminds me of the day my hubby did M-60 training in the Navy.
His shoulder was one angry red blob with tiny spots of blood here and there.
Naturally, it was his favorite out of all the guns he used.See if one of those new Remington (yeah, I know--wrong manufacturer) recoil pads will fit on the end of that stock.
Also, Marlin and Hornady upped the ante again with the new LeverEvolution rounds. Polymer-tipped bullets for lever guns--the polymer is a soft one, that compresses when the primer of the round ahead of it hits it.
Posted by BlueStateSaint
08/05/2008 at 07:28 AM
Blue, I’ve got a Pachmayr F990 pad on there now. It’s the biggest model they sell. That ought to help a lot.
The Marlin/Hornady LeverEvolution ammo and cartridges are quite interesting. They put a polymer tip - pretty much a pointy bit of pencil eraser - on the front of slightly lighter semi-hollowpoint bullets. The better aerodynamics (called ballistic coefficient for bullets) gives you another 50-75 yards range.
But the more interesting part is the “new” .308 Marlin Express. It is nothing more than the old .307 Winchester with the shoulder pushed back a tenth of an inch. Though this gives the cartridge less room to hold gunpowder, it makes equal or better velocity than the .307 did. Equal to a .308 in fact. This is because Hornady has developed a “magic” new line of gunpowders, which you and I can not buy. Nor can we buy these bullets for our own reloading. Grrr! These powders give you the velocity that the old cartridge needed 60,000 psi pressures to achieve, but they do it at under 43,000 psi. And every gun nut knows that 43,000 psi is the pressure limit of the .30-30 round. In other words, this powder allows gun manufacturers to build high performance lever guns without having to beef up their standard rifles. I’d love to get my hands on a few cans of those powders and some pressure testing equipment. But for now, if you want that kind of performance you have to buy the factory ammo. Reloading the .308 Marlin Express to the same pressure level with regular bullets and powder gives you 200-300fps less velocity, and gives you an expensive little cartridge that is no better than the .30-30.
When Marlin introduced their new version of the model 336 that uses the LeverEvolution, what they call the XLR, they found that the bullet’s extended useful range required them to really tighten up production tolerances. They had been lazy, and the rifles they were building up until then were only accurate to about 200 yards. The XLR is a much better rifle than what they used to make, and is accurate to 300+ yards. Too bad it only comes in stainless steel with a puke-ugly laminated stock. (Oops, I’m wrong. Marlin now sells a model 308MX which has blued steel and walnut. But they cut the barrel 2” so velocity will be 100fps less.) Will there be a .35 Marlin Express? Who knows? If anything there will be a .338 Marlin Express that matches the performance of the new .338 Federal. That’s still enough gun for the largest critters, but with somewhat lighter bullets than the 35 caliber rifles use, thus giving less recoil.
Drew that just looks like too much masochism. I will stick to my .17 and you can keep the recoil! Regarding the lever action stock and scope use. I am reminded of Jim Carmichel in his book on rifles (sadly out of print) he had an old Enfield rechambered in the then new .243 and claimed in order to use it you would need a head like a jackass! At least it comes with a monte carlo comb I suppose. Nice looking bit of walnut though.
Perhaps I’m just showing my ignorance, but the XTR sounds remarkably similar to my father’s Winchester lever action .308 that he had when I was a kid. Model 700 perhaps? he used it for elk, and it was one of 3 rifles I learned to shoot with. Not sure where it went, I think one of my brothers has it nowadays. One notable difference between it and the rifle you described is that the recoil pad had a honeycomb section in the middle, presumably so it could actually soak some of the recoil through its inch and a half or so of depth. Perhaps the center half of that had diamond shaped holes cut in it. And yes, it was *pretty*, and yes, it could reliably bring down an elk at a couple hundred yards, and yes it had a scope on it.
GOF, it was probably the Winchester Model 88, which was about as pretty a lever action that has been made, IMHO.
I’m goint to try those .30-30 LeverEvolution rounds in an old Model 94 that my grandfather used. One of the guys in the camp I belong to, in the eastern Adirondacks, has had the LeverEvolution rounds in .35 Remington in his Marlin 336. Don’t know how he did with those. I do know that he popped a buck on the last day of New York’s Northern Zone rifle season, but he might have been carrying his Remington 740 in .30-06 that time.
Posted by BlueStateSaint
08/05/2008 at 12:30 PM
Partner of mine has a .308 Savage 99. I am so freaking jealous, you can have NO idea. I’ll have to see if I have anything he might want more, ahem. As for recoil, I’ve got one of those little Austrian Mannlicher 8x56R carbines. My son and I were having a wonderful day at the range, and a friend of ours(a former Marine Recon) asked if he could try. I loaded up 5 rounds and handed it to him. He fired 2 and gave it back, lip bleeding. My son, 16 at the time, took it, said “Pussy”, and burned off three more magazines worth. I love my son. That 308 Marlin sounds sweet. Like a puppy. Recoil control is body position, and having become “one with the gun”, that’s it. I will make the qualification that things like the .50 M2, and the 40mm HEDP really do need a muzzle brake or recoil pad. After all, those rounds are based on crew served weapons mounted on, at the minimum, a tripod.
cmblake, you ought to check out Gunbroker.com for one of those. My father-in-law has one which used to be his brother’s gun. It was a sleek thing, then he got it drilled and tapped, and a small scope put on it. His rationale was that he couldn’t see deer running all that well, and he wanted to.
A firend of mine has one in .300 Savage, and he’s killed quite a few deer with it.
Posted by BlueStateSaint
08/06/2008 at 05:22 AM
Sweet. I’ll see what I can find. Thanks for the idea!
You’re going to need to get a gun dealerto accept the shipping of the rifle to his FFL. Other than that, good luck! I hope you snag one, then kill a buck or three with it.
Posted by BlueStateSaint
08/06/2008 at 09:30 AM
Oh, I’ve already got a myriad of fine deer/bear/pig/whatever rifles. I just love that 99. What rather puzzles me is the fact that I’ve not gotten one before.
08/05/2008 at 09:58 AM
