I’m getting a pretty strong itch to add this to my Amazon cart and see how it works out. I can’t remember where I first saw this—on Bane’s blog I think—but this is certainly one of the cooler looking upgrades for the 10/22 platform. How can you not like the idea of having your own Maschinengewehr 42? I’m just worried it will look cheap and cheesy. Also, I’m pretty happy with all my 10/22s right now and don’t want to tear one apart to build this up, so I’d need to throw down for another rifle.

If nothing else, though, this shows once again that the 10/22 is the ultimate platform for customizing rimfire guns.

—John Snow

There is a certain portion of the hunting and shooting fraternity who can pick up a shotgun—any shotgun—and hit what they are aiming at. This isn’t necessarily surprising, because shotgunning really isn’t that difficult, or rather the idea of it really isn’t difficult. People are, after all, predisposed with good hand-eye coordination and we have a natural, almost instinctual, ability to track things in flight with our vision.

So for some folks this means they can grab a shotgun and, no matter what its stock dimensions are, knock the snot out of their target.

I would like to go on the record here to say two things. First, I hate these people. And, secondly, I am not one of them. Is there a relationship between these two points? I leave that to you to decide.

It’s hard to argue that pink guns aren't a trend. SayUncle has been tracking the phenomenon for a while.

This cute shotgun is one of the new products Remington is coming out with next year. With spacers that can go between the butt pad and the stock you can adjust the length of pull for a young, growing shooter. I think I might need to get one of these for my girl. It will go very well with her purple 10/22.

—John Snow

Every time I pick up a pump-action shotgun (or as I call it when I’m in a snooty mood a slide-action) it feels like a return to my roots. I suspect I’m not alone in this. My first shotgun was a pump action, a very affordable Remington 870 Express.  I bought it for two reasons. One, I had $200 in my pocket and, two, if I were to lose it over the side of a boat in a duck marsh somewhere I would not be reduced to tears.

I still have that gun, though now it is rather modified and serves as my primary meet-and-greet gun for unwanted nocturnal visitors, but I don’t shoot it much anymore.

Yesterday, I shot a New England Firearms pump gun, which is a pretty faithful copy of the 870, though being made in China is even cheaper to buy. Like the 870, it works really damn well and was surprisingly smooth to use.

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

At the new product seminar today we learned about a new cartridge that will be joining the successful line of LeverEvolution products, the .338 Marlin Express.

These bullets will use the same soft-tip technology that the other LeverEvolution cartridges employ and the result will be a round that is the rough equivalent of a .30-06.

I'm a huge fan of .33 caliber bullets and can't wait to give this one a go. I hope the accuracy is on par with the previous Marlin XLR rifles. If it is I know I'm going to order one. If you combine a lever-action with an accurate .33-caliber bullet, I just wouldn't be able to resist.

According to the spec sheet, the initial offering will be a 200-grain bullet, which will exit a 24-inch barrel at 2,565 fps. Sighted in 3 inches high at 100 yards, the bullet drops only 7.8 inches at 300. At the 300-yard mark, the bullet is carrying 1,760 ft-lb of energy--plenty for even elk-sized game.

It is very hard for any cartridge larger than a .30 caliber to become a runaway success and I doubt the .338 MX will buck that trend, but that doesn't mean it cannot have a long and productive (and for the folks at Marlin, profitable) run. I'll be pulling for it.

UPDATE: Had a chance to crank off a few rounds of the new .338 MX and...it worked. Without being able to do a comprehensive workup it is difficult to draw any conclusions about the round and we were limited by the amount of ammo that was available. But it loaded, fed and cycled well and it was hitting the steel targets I was shooting 100 yards away.

The rifle will come in two versions, a blue/walnut trim--the 338MX--and a stainless version, the 338MXLR. We had the stainless rifle and it handled very much like the other MXLR rifles I've shot. Meaning the trigger could certainly use some work but that it hit what I was aiming at, which is the whole point of the affair after all.

UPDATE: Ballistics Info from Marlin.

—John Snow

I've had a couple questions come to me about the magazines for the platform. The mags are going to be single stack mags with a four round capacity.

Another thing: The info in the ballistic chart was generated with a 24-inch barrel, the folks at Remington told me. Given that the R-15 in .30 RAR will have a 22-inch barrel I would expect to see the actual muzzle velocities to graf around 75 fps less than the data I gave in that original chart, which would put it around 2,725 fps.

—John Snow

A few people have asked for some technical specs on the new .30 RAR cartridge and, in no particular order, here are some of those answers.

Parent Case: The .450 Bushmaster. But the case head diameter was bumped up to .492” to prevent accidental chambering of other cartridges.

How about the bolt head? The bolt head is a modified .308 Win. bolt head that has been significantly beefed up to help handle the higher operating pressures generated by the .30 RAR. The .30 RAR is about a 55,000 psi cartridge vs. 38,000 psi for the 450 Bushmaster.

Last night while talking with DPMS President Randy Luth and Remington’s John Fink, who is the brand manager for the rifle division, they both said that the goal was to look at the AR lower and see how much cartridge they could fit in there.

Uppers: Remington said in no uncertain terms that it will (eventually) make uppers available for sale.

Rate of Twist: This is still being finalized, but right now they are playing with a 1-in-10” rate of twist and are getting pretty good results.

Cost: The suggested price for the R15 in .30 RAR is $1,199.

How’s it shoot? Well, it turned out that there wasn’t a functioning rifle available to shoot yesterday, so that question is one I can’t answer. But as soon as I get my hands on one, I’ll post a report.

Any other questions, let me know and I'll get back to you.

Update: Shelby at GunPundit has his own take on the new round and the Firearm Blog and SayUncle are both gathering info.

—John Snow

Remington says it is going to have three different factory loads for the new cartridge. There's the 125-gr. AccuTip BT I already mentioned plus a 125-gr. Core-Lokt PSP and a 123-gr. bullet coming out under the UMC brand.

Here's the info on them: