Marlin makes a 338 Marlin Express. It's designed for the pointed gummy tipped FTC bullets from Hornady. This is probably one of the greatest advances in lever action rifles due to their tubular magazines. Bullets in a tubular magazine previously could not be pointy because the point of the bullet would ignite the primer of the bullet in front of it. Hornady has developed a gummy pointed tip that is safe in these magazines and lever actions can now shoot ballistically superior bullets compared to the blunt nosed offerings. It's ballistics are close to a 30-06. Anyway, they makes two models. The MXLR and the MX. The MXLR is their high end offering with a laminated stock, stainless steel, 24" barrel. I got one of those. The MX is the standard model in blue, walnut stock and 22" barrel. I got one of those too, both new.
Marlin 338 MXLR- Fit and finish was great but beauty was skin deep. It had the worst trigger of any rifle I've held. The gunsmith fixed that however it would jam so badly and misfire that I sent it back. It came back much better after replacing the barrel and breech. No jams but it now misfires approximately every 7th shot and the dovetail insert on the forend stock hanger slid all over the place. It's retired for now. There's a gunsmith a couple hours away I'm taking it to. Hope he can help.
Marlin 338 MX- Since I won't take the other rifle hunting due to it's unreliability, I decided to break out the unfired 338 MX. I was saving it as a saddle rifle but decided to scope it up and take it hunting. I took it out today to break in the barrel. Once again, disappointment. My new, unfired Marlin was jamming like crazy. It wouldn't cycle and you couldn't get a round chambered by working the action. When you close the lever, it's supposed to lock in place but this one springs open like a bad cabinet door and the rifle won't fire in that position. By this time you might think I would go bizerk but no, that's all out of my system. Remington manufactured Marlins don't work and I've come to accept it. Anyway, since I was breaking in the barrel, I pointed the muzzle down and dropped a round in the chamber, shot, cleaned and so on. It turns out if this lever gun worked, it would be quite a rifle. After 6 break in shots, I shot a 3 shot group below. Not bad accuracy for a lever action with a 6 lb. trigger.
If the gunsmith can't fix it in 5 minutes, I'll send it back to Remington/Marlin for repair. They haven't made these rifles in a while. I'm not sure they ever will but if they do, the next run has to be better as it couldn't be much worse. Still, you think that if you bought two new rifles from the same company, one of them would work.
Marlin 338 MXLR- Fit and finish was great but beauty was skin deep. It had the worst trigger of any rifle I've held. The gunsmith fixed that however it would jam so badly and misfire that I sent it back. It came back much better after replacing the barrel and breech. No jams but it now misfires approximately every 7th shot and the dovetail insert on the forend stock hanger slid all over the place. It's retired for now. There's a gunsmith a couple hours away I'm taking it to. Hope he can help.
Marlin 338 MX- Since I won't take the other rifle hunting due to it's unreliability, I decided to break out the unfired 338 MX. I was saving it as a saddle rifle but decided to scope it up and take it hunting. I took it out today to break in the barrel. Once again, disappointment. My new, unfired Marlin was jamming like crazy. It wouldn't cycle and you couldn't get a round chambered by working the action. When you close the lever, it's supposed to lock in place but this one springs open like a bad cabinet door and the rifle won't fire in that position. By this time you might think I would go bizerk but no, that's all out of my system. Remington manufactured Marlins don't work and I've come to accept it. Anyway, since I was breaking in the barrel, I pointed the muzzle down and dropped a round in the chamber, shot, cleaned and so on. It turns out if this lever gun worked, it would be quite a rifle. After 6 break in shots, I shot a 3 shot group below. Not bad accuracy for a lever action with a 6 lb. trigger.
If the gunsmith can't fix it in 5 minutes, I'll send it back to Remington/Marlin for repair. They haven't made these rifles in a while. I'm not sure they ever will but if they do, the next run has to be better as it couldn't be much worse. Still, you think that if you bought two new rifles from the same company, one of them would work.