Coyote Hunter,
I have seen this happen before in my life, and I am sure that if you have been around rifles for a while and kind of kept up on passing fads, this has sort of happened before.
You can't buy the same bullets, you can't buy the dies, you can't buy the brass, you can't buy the same powder. It's a wonder that Marlin didn't come up with an oddball Marlin primer, so the whole thing would be proprietary.
Don't be surprised if, and when, those dies become available, they have such a hefty premium attached to them that the price would hover around $100 a set. Add in the premium for that brass and bullet, and you do not have an economical way of using that rifle. On the onset, it will be much cheaper to buy factory loads. One of the big reasons people reload is to eventually recoup the price of the initial supplies that make it cost effecive. I am afraid this will never happen with the M/E.
This is nonsense in a world where so many calibers are available that can out produce this thing at a more reasonable cost.
My point was you were extolling the virtues of the .30 TC while dissing the .308 Marlin - even though they have more similarities than differences. The key difference, in fact, is the pressure to shich they will be loaded, and the .30TC is unsuitable for Marlin actions - a place where the .308 Marlin is right at home. The fact is that both are new cartridges, both are shorter than the .308, neither (as far as I know) have recieved SAAMI standardization yet (although the .308 Marlin will shortly, not sure but assume the same for the .30 TC), brass is not available for either cartridge yet, and you can't get dies or the same powder Hornady uses for either. All of this will change.
Another difference is the .308 Marlin will come factory loaded from Marlin with flex-tip bullets. For many reloaders the flex-tip bullets are of no concern, as standard .30-30 bullets will work just fine. In my case I will use the Speer Hot-Cor 130-170g bullets, the 170g Nosler Partition and possibly the 150g Barnes TSX FN. While handloaders may not be able to duplicate the velocity or downrange trajectories of Hornady ammo, they can still get a significant performance increase over the .30-30. I figure the .308 Marlin, loaded with a 170g Speer to 2550fps, will give me about 500 fpe more at 200 yards than the the same bullet in my .30-30 handloads.
Between the two cartridges, I much prefer the 336 platform to the new TC Icon, which, for a number of reasons, is not a rifle I would buy. Although I expect both cartridges to be popular in the firearms they were designed for, the Marlin 336 and TC Icon, I do not expect either cartridge to gain widespread acceptance in other firearms. In the case of the .308 Marlin, bolt guns are better off chambered in the standard .308 Win. And unless ammunition manufacturers can get their hands on powder similar to what Hornady is using, the same is true for the .30 TC. In fact in bolt guns there are a number of suitable cartrdges that will outperform the .30 TC. If I was a betting man I would bet the .308 Marlin will outsell the .30 TC by a large margin.
As to the dies, I will be very surprised if the .308 Marlin dies hover around $100 a set. The cartrige will get SAAMI standardization early this year and once that happens you can expect dies from Hornady, RCBS, Lee and probably others. Other recent cartridges Hornady collaborated with a firearms manufacturer to develop were the .204 Ruger and .480 Ruger. These days you can pick up .204 Ruger dies at Midway for $29.99 for Hornady, $25.99 for RCBS, $21.99 for Lee or pay $83.99 for Forster Ultra dies. Dies for the .480 Ruger are in the same ballpark and nowhere near $100 for the Hornady, RCBS or Lee dies.
Perhaps you haven't noticed, but people often reload for reasons other than to "eventually recoup the price of the initial supplies that make it cost effecive", although unlike you I fully expect the .308 Marlin to be cost effective in the reloading department. In my own case I expect to produce better hunting ammunition Hornady offers, based on bullet selection - even though I will be giving up something in muzzle velocity. While I may well pay more for my hunting ammo than for factory Hornady ammo, that is of no concern to me nor is it unusual. My plinking and practice ammo will run little more than my standard .30-30 loads and most of the difference will be in powder costs.
In this "world where so many calibers are available that can out produce this thing at a more reasonable cost", name one that is suitable for the Marlin 336 platform.
