308 xlr

[a357lever]

my hunting buddy is having his new marlin xlr 308 cut to 16.5" what will happen to velocity?, I say he will lose 250 fps with the 150 grain load. He does not seem to care since he only uses it to about 200 yards max.

[Ranch Dog]

I'm not sure why he would want to change a thing. He is taking a modern rifle that was balanced for a specific bullet and load. I think he will ruin the firearm.

[Chuck 100 yd]

What RD said +1

[madman4570]

I will just keep my stock .35 Rem thank you very much!

[Leverdude]

End up with an overpriced 30/30 that needs special brass. But its his gun.

[Pisgah]

I may be wrong, but I believe the .308 Marlin Express yields about 2600 fps with a 160 gr. bullet from a 24" barrel. I suspect lopping 7.5" off will have a prettty dramatic effect on velocity. Now, it will probably still top -- maybe just by a bit -- a 170 gr. .30-30, but I suspect it would run about even with a 150 gr. .30-30. Again, I could be all wet on this, but it seems a rather expensive way to get a short rifle only marginally more effective than a .30-30. A whole lot less money could get you a nice used 336 .30-30 you could modify any way you wanted, plus scads of components with which to load nice, full-power .30-30 ammo that would very likely keep up nicely with the stumpy .308 rifle. If blast and fireball are what you're after, though, I'd go with the .308.

[Thunder50]

They got it right, your friend is going to have a very loud 30-30

[J Miller]

Some people just have to fix things till they brake them. After he learns the hard way he'll just pander it off on somebody else that don't know they are getting a bubba'd rifle.

Sad really what some folks do to fine rifles.

Joe

[Pisgah]

I certainly don't want to say that anyone who wants to modify his own gun is wrong. I have done quite a number of drastic rifle re-works, and have been told every time by someone that I was ruining a gun. A couple of times, they were right; but most of the time I have ended up with something thst suited my needs just fine; and some of the critics have been impressed, too, to the point that I am currently working on a chopped Glenfield for one of them, exactly like mine.

I am all for shorty leverguns -- love them. But I am convinced that you give up a lot less of the cartridge's full potential in a short .30-30 than you do in a short . 308 Marlin Express, and a .30-30 will do out to 200 yards provided the shooter can hit the target. If you feel you need .308 punch, stick with the 24" barrel.. A 24" 336 is really no large burden in tight cover.

[william iorg]

ENGLANDER and I speculated on this a bit when the 308 Marlin Express first appeared. ENGLANDER lives in Scotland and must meet some specific velocity and energy goals and these must be proven by shooting his loads across a chronograph.
I took a look at what the factory Hornady 308ME ammunition delivers from my 22” barrel and the factory loads got 2,600 fps from my rifle.
When I first started loading for the 308 Marlin Express there was no pressure tested load data so I just loaded for bit higher velocity than my 30-30AI loads got from the 20” and a little less than my 307 Winchester loads got from the 20” barrel.
Everything was fine until Hornady released pressure tested load data and I had to reduce my loads to Hornadys maximum. Suddenly my 30-30AI loads – at higher pressure I admit – looked pretty good.
In my 22” barrel 308MX I regularly loaded the 150-grain Speer bullet to 2,550 fps and the 170-grain Speer bullet to the same velocity. A large dose of reality reduced things a bit.

This is fun speculation so I took a look at your friend’s 16” barrel.
The Speer 150-grain bullet is .907” long and the 308ME loaded to a COAL of 2.600” seats the bullet .227” deep leave us 48.7 grains of water to play with. We have an effective barrel length of 14.307” according to my scribbling on scrap paper.
39.0 grain of Hodgdon 4895 estimates out to 2,380 fps.
From my 22” barrel this load chronographed 2,525fps.

The 170-grain Speer bullet is 1.020” long and with a COAL of 2.600” we have seated it .340” deep. This leaves us with 46.6 grains of water to play with.
I estimate a load of 37.6 grains of Hodgdon 4895 would give you 2,200 fps from the 16” barrel.
My 22” barrel using this load chronographed 2,400 fps.

Your friend will be better off than if he were using a standard 30-30 Trapper as about the best I can do with a 150-grain Speer bullet from the 16” barrel is 2,150fps.
The 170-grain Speer bullet reaches maximum at about 1,950fps in my Trapper.


Hobie that "commie" plate is a hoot!

[madman4570]

Take a $800 gun ,ruin it and spend another $100-200,so for almost a grand you will have somthing thats about like this for $230 cash.Only a lot more for ammo too! Priceless!
http://www.ktpguns.com/interior.php/pid/28/gid/141548

[CEMENTHEAD]

He'll end up with a Loud rifle for sure. However I think he's only gonna give up 200 fps. That still puts him in that 2300-2350 fps range with the 160's .....which ain't hay. Thanks, Tom

[a357lever]

thats what i told him but he says its his and .........

i won't say i told you so.
yes i will