To follow on the success of last year's XL7 bolt-action rifle, Marlin is going to come to market with a short-action version of the same.

The initial caliber offerings will be .243 Win., .308 Win. and 7mm-08 Rem.. The rifle will come in three trim packages: a plain black synthetic stock, a camo version wearing RealTree APG-HD (shown above) and a compact, youth version.

The length of pull in the compact model will be 12.5 inches.

For the price, this will be a very good option for a child's first rifle. It will be cheap and accurate and for a rifle of this level I think it looks pretty good too.

UPDATE: Got to shoot the XS7 in .308 Win. and .243 Win. and really liked it. The .308 in particular handled very nicely and I had no trouble making the steel pig set out a 250 yards ring. The .243 version had a little hiccup with the bottom round in the magazine--it had some difficulty feeding--but I'm sure the factory will work the kinks out before it ships.

Bottom line? The more I shoot this rifle the more I like it. For less than $300 I can't think of another rifle that gives this value for the money. 

—John Snow