pacecars
Senior Member
I picked up my rifle yesterday and the scope mounts came in the mail so it is all good to go so I thought I would give a little review for anyone that may be thinking about picking one of these up. It is a Marlin XL7 .30-06. It is a blued finish that is kind of in-between gloss and matte finish. It has a 22 inch barrel and synthetic stock with a blind magazine. The stock is black with sharp molded in checkering and a 1 inch thick solid recoil pad. The barrel is not free floated and the stock has 2 pressure pads near the end that press against the barrel. The gun comes with 2 piece Weaver style bases but I ditched those and picked up some low one piece Talley Lightweight aluminum rings instead. I mounted a Leupold 6x42 gloss scope and roughly bore sighted it.
I went to Walmart and bought 2 boxes of the cheap Winchester 150gr Power Points and headed to the range. Fired a couple shots at 25 yds to get it on paper and noticed surprisingly little kick compared to the few other '06 rifles I have fired for such a light rifle. Set a target up at 100 yds and fired a shot that was about 6 inches off the paper! OOPS! got it dield back down the right way and fired a few shots and got it fine tuned. I set up a new target and let the barrel cool a little bit before firing 3 shots to see what she would do. The first 2 shots were within 1/4" of each other with the 3rd shot making the group 3/4 inches! It had to be a fluke so I fired 3 more at a new target and the first 2 shots were touching but the 3rd opened it to 7/8 inches! So 2 groups under the fabled inch with a cheap ammo and cheap gun (good quality scope and mounts though). I can't wait to see what she will do with some handloads tailored to the rifle!
The rifle is a lot nicer than I thought it would be considering the price. The stock is stiffer than most of the other cheap injection molded ones. I would have preferred a metal triggerguard instead of the plastic one but it looks OK. The safety is 2 position and does not lock the bolt down which some won't like. They even made the barrel nut look good. The only thing I don't like on the gun is the way Marlin's barrel stamping looks. There is something about it that just doesn't look good. All in all I would say Marlin did a great job and has a winner. I would definately reccomend the XL7 over the Savage or Stevens, Mossburg, or the Rem 710 or 770 as a first gun.
I went to Walmart and bought 2 boxes of the cheap Winchester 150gr Power Points and headed to the range. Fired a couple shots at 25 yds to get it on paper and noticed surprisingly little kick compared to the few other '06 rifles I have fired for such a light rifle. Set a target up at 100 yds and fired a shot that was about 6 inches off the paper! OOPS! got it dield back down the right way and fired a few shots and got it fine tuned. I set up a new target and let the barrel cool a little bit before firing 3 shots to see what she would do. The first 2 shots were within 1/4" of each other with the 3rd shot making the group 3/4 inches! It had to be a fluke so I fired 3 more at a new target and the first 2 shots were touching but the 3rd opened it to 7/8 inches! So 2 groups under the fabled inch with a cheap ammo and cheap gun (good quality scope and mounts though). I can't wait to see what she will do with some handloads tailored to the rifle!
The rifle is a lot nicer than I thought it would be considering the price. The stock is stiffer than most of the other cheap injection molded ones. I would have preferred a metal triggerguard instead of the plastic one but it looks OK. The safety is 2 position and does not lock the bolt down which some won't like. They even made the barrel nut look good. The only thing I don't like on the gun is the way Marlin's barrel stamping looks. There is something about it that just doesn't look good. All in all I would say Marlin did a great job and has a winner. I would definately reccomend the XL7 over the Savage or Stevens, Mossburg, or the Rem 710 or 770 as a first gun.
