I always wanted a rifle in .308 Winchester

[Danny Creasy]

I rather impulsively picked up a new Marlin X7 on Monday. Well, the barrel is marked X7 but the box has SX7. I think somewhere between the old Marlin factory and the new Remington one there was a name change.

I had a scope on hand gathering dust and a set of inexpensive Weaver Quad Lock rings. The scope is a Swift Premier 6-18X44. Rather massive, but the medium rings had no trouble providing a nice clearance between the AO and the barrel. The factory sends the rifle out with the Weaver type base on it, but I'm glad I checked it out. The screws needed tightening. I cinched up the two allen head action screws as well.



I had to leave for the range early on Wednesday, and the only place that was open was WalMart. All they had was 7.62X51 MKE stuff. Well, it was cheap ($9.99 for 20) and I thought, "What the heck?"

We were running a practice session for this Saturday's rimfire match. So, I had to test drive the Marlin first thing - before the others arrived and started setting up. Pretty disheartening. Hand sized groups at 100 yards. But, the rifle fed and fired reliably. I rationalized and hoped that it was mostly due to a brand new and cleaned bore (I ran two or three Hoppes patches and several dry ones through it to clean out whatever the factory may have shipped it with), plus the performance of the Turkish mil spec ammo. Also, it was rather cold (started out below freezing) and windy (5 to 10 mile an hour shifting winds).

Wednesday night, I picked up a 40 count box of .308 Winchester 150 grain Power Point ammo.

I waited until noon to head over to the range on Thursday to let it warm up. Before I left, I cleaned the bore thoroughly. I used a foaming bore cleaner to begin with. After two or three dry patches, I gave it several passes with a patch coated with JB. I finished up with it several wet Hoppes patches each followed by a dry patch before finishing with three dry ones to make sure the bore was good and dry.

Around 1 PM, I fired a couple of fouling rounds to get me close to the POA at 100 yards, and then I stared shooting groups. Seemed like the rifle and I got better as we went along. I didn't really worry about a perfect zero at this point, because I plan on doing some hand loading next week.

Here are some 100 yard groups:



I went over to the 50 yard bench and worked with my CZ 452 Varmint on a USBR target for a while. After I finished the rimfire session, I began to pack up. I had noticed that somebody left an unscathed shoot n see type bull up at the 50 yard line. So, I pulled the Marlin back out of it's case, grabbed three rounds, and went back over to the 50 yard bench. I settled in on the Caldwell RockBR rest and Caldwell rear bag and fired three at the 50 yard bull as fast as I could single load, sight, aim, and squeeze.

Dang, three in one hole. Maybe, I was trying too hard at 100 yards.



It almost made me want to go back and shoot the last 10 rounds of the 40 at 100. But, I was pretty much beat by then and decided to save it for the weekend.

 

[bangswitch]

I bought an X7 a couple of years ago. The "S" means short action; they make an "L", or long action, version too. Mine's also a .308, and I had the same initial issues with groups, but they did improve. It's a nice action, not a bad deal for what they sell for, but I bought mine with the intent of upgrading the plastic stock, and I did a couple of months ago. I bought a thumbhole stock from Boyd's. The action dropped right in, didn't have to do a single thing to make it fit, and you can slide a piece of typing paper between the barrel and fore end, all the way to the chamber. My groups at 100 yards went from 2-1/2 MOA down to 1-1/2 immediately; partly, I think, because the Boyd's stock fits me better. If I were a better shot, they might be even better groups. I've been playing with the trigger as I've gone along, got it down to about 2.75 lb at the break, and it's a clean break, no creep. I probably have 400-500 rounds through it now.

 

[Danny Creasy]

Very helpful input. Thanks. I actually surfed through the Boyds stock site this evening. I Lyman gauged the Marlin's trigger. It is 3 lbs 4 ozs with no creep. I'm happy with that at this point. I like the simplicity of the rifle.

Talk is that Remington has had Marlin stop production of these rifles. I wonder if they were showing up their own econo class offerings?

 

[Reloadron]

I believe if you work with and tweak the existing stock things will improve and going to another stock as was the case with bangswitch's rifle things will really improve. Also, if you hand load the rifle will really come into its own. Best of luck and shooting with it and enjoy it.

Ron