- I have a lot of experience, handloading equipment and supplies for the 30/30; my first personal centerfire was the venerable 30/30. And in the grand scheme, the 30/30 is still a really versatile and accurate round. As much as I love my pistol caliber levers, the 30wcf really does dominate over them.
- Cowboy Lever Action Silhouette rules stipulate rifles need to be styled traditionally with the tubular magazine.
- It’s long 24’ barrel comes pre-drilled and tapped to take an aperture sight, offering a long sight radius for irons.
- The XLR has ballard style cut rifling that should (in theory) stabilize cast lead bullets better than the normal microgroove barrels you find in most 336’s.
- The XLR omits the traditional barrel bands (at the cost of the magazine capacity). Barrel bands can disrupt the barrel harmonics, especially as the barrel heats and changes.
- I do not like the triggers on the BLR. In fact I detest them, and I know they are a tricky thing to lighten, in fact many Smith’s outright refuse to touch them.
- The 336 action is in my experience an extremely reliable lever action.
Ok so onward with the review:
The Marlin XLR is a new era remlin concept; it comes out of the same factories as the “cheap” remlin versions, so I was a little nervous it wouldn’t be much of a step up from my cheaper 336w (yet costing more than double the price!). Thankfully, the first thing I noticed was that compared to the entry level 336, the fit and finish is of much higher standard. The machining is much more refined than the 336w; no sharp edges and the action is fairly smooth out of the box, yet locks up tight. The tolerances are noticeably tighter; some of my rough old handloads are a squeeze to chamber; I'll need to tweak my trims and OALs for this rifle. The trigger is also noticeably lighter and crisper than your average 336, breaking at around 4lbs. Probably about perfect for a hunting rifle. Unfortunately the factory trigger still suffers from the old marlin flop. NOTE: I still did replace my factory trigger with a “Wild West Guns Trigger Happy” trigger, as this gun will be used for target shooting, and I do like my light triggers.
The squishy, recoil absorbing buttplate is finished perfectly, and does a superb job at soaking up any recoil of even the hottest factory loads. It’s on-par, if not better than the aftermarket limbsaver pad I had to add to my 336w:
Even though it’s a laminated timber stock, the colouring and checkering is well finished. A small polymercap underneath the grip I discovered is also a nice touch and oozes quality:
The bolt is fluted, reducing the bearing surfaces and thus helping with an overall smoother action:
The underside of the bolt showed an embossed “3030” insignia another touch of quality:
The screw-on front ramp that is dovetailed to take the front sight has two screws (instead of just the one) meaning I was comfortable changing the front sight without worrying about damaging any screws, this was a real bug-bear for me in the past:
I managed a quick visit to the local indoor range. As a sort of control I purchased a box of Hornady Leverevolution factory ammo, and the XLR absolutely sung. With a little 1-4x24 scope at 50m the first three shots stacked on top of each other, then the fourth and fifth opened up to just under 2moa, probably as the barrel properties changed due to the heat from the full power loads (after all it’s no free floating barrel):
Still a lot of load development to do, especially reduced loads with lead pills yet I’m confident I’ll get her singing with a good variety of bullets.
Overall I’m surprised at the quality of the remlin XLR; the detail is where the XLR far surpasses your average 336. But at $1700 you’d bloody hope so!!
More range reports to come...
In2.