Marlin xl7

[Snibbug161]

Hi all, has anyone got any experience of marlin? Especially in .270 win as is great value and gets quite a good review in general.

thoughts of the quality and any idea what ammo they like? Heavier or lighter grains?

Many thanks

 

[Southern]

I have posted some reviews here before. The XL7 and XS7 are bargains.
I don't need one, but I want one, anyway. The Savage Edge and Ruger American are bargains, but when you look at the way Marlin took all these features from other rifles and blended them into a rifle at this price ($250 USD ), it beats everything, to my engineering mind. I might have to buy one and give it as a gift, just to scratch my itch.

XL7 in wood stock, .270 Winchester
Marlin XL7 Hunting Rifle Review | Big Game Hunt

Details of all the design features, synthetic .30-06
Bargain Beauty: Marlins XL7 Rifle

Original review when the rifle came out in 2008
Marlin’s New XL7 Bolt Action Rifle

 

[Snibbug161]

Many thanks for the swift response. I have recently bought one in .270

quality I think for the money unbeatable but might upgrade to a boyds stock to try and improve the groups. Haven't worked out if it likes 110, 130 or 150 grains best yet. Averaging 2 inch with 130 but not sure with the twist rate if it will prefer lighter or heavier?

any thoughts?

thanks again

 

[Southern]

Almost all .270s are 1:10 twist, and shoot everything from 100 to 150 grains with that. Like the Tikka T3, most Marlin XL7 owners find the rifle pretty accurate out of the box, but not with every single off-the-shelf ammunition. You just need to try some different brands of ammo, starting with inexpensive PPU, Geco, and Sellier & Bellot. Then go to vanilla Hornady Whitetail, Remington, Federal blue box, and Winchester, then Federal Fusion. After you find the 130-gr it likes best, try the 150-gr. You don't need to spend a fortune to find accurate .270 Win which will kill deer like lightning.

 

[jcev39]

Sorry to revive an old thread but I thought a recent experience would be useful for others!

I have an XL7 in 270 which I have been delighted with. It shoots ~1.5" at 100yrds with PPU (both 130 and 150 SP), slightly better with Federal Powr Shok 130 and under 1" with my simple handloads (Speer 130 HotCors on N160). I've shot around 100 rounds through it now (mostly on targets for practice / zeroing as its knocked down every deer its been fired at with a single shot!!). On a recent trip to Scotland, it zeroed perfectly and the first hind went down without bother but on reloading it felt a little stiff. As I went to unload, the bolt was very stiff and after a little persuasion, pulled the bullet out of the case (powder everywhere bullet stuck in the barrel ) so we had to come off the hill.

I cleaned everything out and decided, for my own confidence, to switch to factory ammo and went to re-zero. The first round was fine (about 2" away from the hand loads but given the rifle / scope etc had been dismantled to clean that was no surprise!). I went to reload to fire a second round and the safety would not move and the trigger wouldn't fire. My initial thought was that powder had got in the trigger so I blew out the area with compressed air but no joy. It was at this point I noticed that the trigger and safety were moving more than I expected!

To cut a long story short, when I took the action out of the stock again it was clear that the trigger was very loose and the sear was not engaging (I was thankful that I've always been told to be gentle when closing the bolt - a slammed bolt could have fired the round!!!).

So anyone with a Marlin X7 - great, accurate rifles they are but PLEASE drop them out of the stock and check your trigger mounting bolts - mine will be loctited from now on! Googling this on my return it appears to be a relatively common issue which could lead to either a wasted day (I was lucky!) or worse some fairly unpleasant consequences.