I just got done reading a "splash" in the March 2008 edition of "Shooting Times" about the "new" Marlin XL7. At first, when I looked at the gun picture on the front of the magazine, I thought the layout guys at the magazine got it wrong and put a pic of a Stevens 200....cause I saw a barrel nut....then I saw what looked like an accutrigger. Well, that was confusing because the Stevens doesn't come with an accutrigger....but then I thought maybe Stevens was gonna change the '08 models and put the accutrigger on 'em.
Well....lo-and-behold.....this gun is a MARLIN!!! It's got a trigger that looks like the accutrigger....but you can't adjust it unless you pull the action\barrel from the stock....and the barrel is just like a Savage\Stevens and appears to be headspaced with a threaded barrel and a barrel nut JUST LIKE A SAVAGE\STEVENS. The safety is a lever type, 2 position on\off.
Well.....Grandma use to say...if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, walks like a duck....it's probably a duck! The article talks about The Marlin engineers and how they put their efforts into making a "low cost" rifle that would shoot well. Well...I think they took the Stevens 200.....changed the trigger enough to not pay royalties, put their own safety on it...and called it a Marlin!!!!
I'm sure it's a tac driver just like the Stevens 200. Hey.....dolly the sheep looked like the original!
Price wars are good for buyers like us.
MHO
Dave
