I think the .308 Marlin makes a lot of sense. According to the Marlin/Hornady execs, they originally had planned to make a .307 using the Leverevolution bullets, until they redesigned the bullet with an even longer ogive, which caused the cartridge overall length to exceed SAAMI specs. Essentially, they set the shoulder back about 0.1 inch and viola, she's done.
Lots of people have dumped on this cartridge and Hornady for not making component bullets available. There is a point there, I must say. Mind you, I don't think they can keep that genie in the bottle forever.
I've also heard a bunch of yap about how it's a reinvention of the .300 Savage, or that the BLR is already available as a .308 Winchester. Yet if you ask these same people where you can find a brand-new, unfired .300 Savage or a .308 in a traditional exposed-hammer, tube-fed lever, they clam up. Hmmm. Of course, even gun nut types can be very slow to take to something new. We've certainly "waited to see if it catches on..." with some great cartridges, slowing the success of the .260 Rem, for example, and killing the .307/.356/.375 Winchesters with slow sales. I expect the .308 Marlin to be fully the equal of the .307 Winchester, and it should handload well, even with roundnose bullets, which will slow it by a hundred fps at 300 yards and make it drop an extra two inches. Big deal.
Marlin's best bet is to flood the market with these rifles and a huge supply of ammo. That will make buyers a bit less nervous.
It's easy for me to say when I don't have to pony up the coin, but if I were to grow tired of handloading, I'd seriously look at trading my Marlin .30-30 Ackley in on a .308, a blued/walnut model. 'specially if they go to a 24" barrel.
Try a search on this forum, there was much discussion when this cartridge was announced several months back.
