Add me to the club
I just picked up a very nice new Marlin 336W 30-30 from WM for $387. It is my second Marlin lever gun and I knew what to look for. It is perfectly fine and shoots great. This was an out of the budget purchase, so I wanted to keep it as inexpensive as possible.
It took a great deal of consideration to decide what long rifle to add to the collection. I put together an AR lower, but just never saw the use for the cartridge, for the hunting my friends and I might do. A good friend is all over the 300BLK and has two. Wanted to sell me one, but I thought about the expense of the round, the greater complexity of reloading it (making the shells) and some other issues surrounding it.
When I compared the 30-30 to the 300BLK, especially the new Hornady Leverevolution rounds and Buffalo Bore rounds, it was obvious that the 30-30 was a superior round. Flatter trajectory and greater energy at greater ranges. There are rounds that have 1000 ft lbs at 300 yards. [Obviously, the value in the 300BLK is its use with a suppressor...not something I need. Of course for the AR platform, it is a great round.]
So....got the Marlin. What a great gun. First and foremost, $387 to get into it. THEN, 30-30 ammo is everywhere, and not too expensive. I reload and found reloading 30-30 a simple, straight forward proposition. Easy to save my brass. Then, can use a wide array of .308 bullets (as long as the nose is appropriate for a lever gun). A gun that can keep any adversary well over 300 yards away and take any game in NA. Great gun.
No pic yet, but:
William FP rear peep sight
Wild West Guns trigger
XS Scout rail
Kick Eez butt pad
Will add a slightly taller front sight, probably a firesight and eventually get a scout scope, perhaps a Weaver 4x.
All in a sleek package. Beautiful.
Thanks
J