Savage Model 14, Marlin XL7. Any good? Any bad?

[Pond James Pond]

As the title suggests, can I ask for any first hand exprience with these?

I've seen one advertised in a shop that also sells Marlin XL7s in .308 and 30-06.

I've learnt enough to know that CZ 550s are good, Zastava M70s are also good, albeit perhaps not quite as refined as theuir Czech cousins.

However, Savage and Marlin are names I've read often, but I don't really yet have a feel for their strengths and weaknesses.

Care to add you own experiences with these brands and models?

 

[Beentown71]

I REALLY like the Marlins. One of the best guns on the market price wise. Mine is under an inch of a rest. 308

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[mdThanatos]

I like my Marlin XS7 in .308. They are similar in the savage design as they use a barrel nut. My trigger is perfect for me, I have never shot a group with it but my local range has steel silhouettes set from 200M-1000M and I can hit 600M just fine, haven't tried any farther. There is some debate about the quality of the Marlins after they were acquired by Remington and some say the JLM marked rifles are better than new production, that's something I have read but cannot comment on and am just throwing that out there if you decide to look it up.

Savages, from what I have read on are pretty good rifles. They should come with the Accu-Trigger and some with an Accu-Stock as well, which should allow you to make any necessary adjustments like trigger pull and the like. I don't really have an opinion on Savages, they look nice and have felt nice when I was looking at rifles a couple of years ago but the Marlin was something that caught my eye and I decided to go with it, mainly due to the price.

ETA

Marlins also don't utilize a free float system, the stock actually has two "tabs" that make contact with the barrel but for my purpose this doesn't cause any problems. So if you are looking for something of a free float design keep that in mind.