I have read a few reviews where guys were dogging the new marlin xl7. I bought a xl7 30-06 and its great. No problems at all. In my opinion the big name guns your buying the name. Kinda like shoes. I hunted with a cheap savage package .243 for years and shot many many big bucks. So unless you have one dont judge just yet.

this post should fire up some interest. haha. you usually do get what you pay for, and marlin is def a big brand. the xl7 is excellent for the price, but its not weatherby, thats for sure. i have a savage m11 .243 and its a great shooter as well.

oops wrong thread.

Yeah they're not as elegant as weatherby, but if you go over to the Marlin owners forum you can find gobs of pics uploaded of submoa groups from fresh out of the box guns.

Weatherby only promises 1-1 1/2 inch accuracy unless it's sub-moa vanguard that's around a grand.

I got a XL7 in .270 and you cant beat it. I put a Leupold 3-9x40 on it and it is a one hole gun out of the box at 75 yds. Only gun i have that i can do it with.

Look at the wood stock guns, the laminated stock is awesome and after mounting a Nikon Buckmaster 3-9x40 had 3 holes in 10 ring at 100 yds while sighting it in.