Initially offered in .30-30, .35 Remington, .444 Marlin, .450 Marlin and .45-70 ammunition, the bullets are now available in several other Hornady LEVERevolution loads.

But Dave Emary and his engineering team didn’t stop at the bullet tip. They also experimented with new powders to boost muzzle velocities. Mechanical treatment of ball powders with special deterrents produces an early pressure curve ideal for short barrels. But the curve has a broad, gentle top, not a sharp peak. The curve’s shape and height and the area underneath show thrust imparted to the bullet. “Powders we developed specifically for LEVERevolution cartridges are not yet available in canisters for handloaders,” Dave emphasizes.

The Marlin rifle chambered in .338 ME has a laminated stock, two-thirds magazine, swivel studs and a 24-inch barrel.

Dave promptly parlayed this work on traditional lever-action rounds into new cartridges. The .308 Marlin Express appeared three years ago. I used it in a Marlin 336 to kill an elk—and to fire some impressive groups. Based on the .307 Winchester hull shortened from 2.015 to 1.920, it outperforms not only the .300 Savage but also the .307. Indeed, it treads closely on the heels of the .308. Hornady’s reconfigured powders make such efficiency possible, and that at pressures less than 47,000 psi.

“We load to 46,500 psi,” Dave explains. “The 336 action will handle a bit more, but extraction can get sticky. We insist on smooth function.”

The .300 and .338 Ruger Compact Magnums came along just last year. Bolt-rifle rounds that don’t need flex-tip bullets, they were engineered to match the velocities of .300 and .338 Winchester Magnum bullets. The difference: RCM rounds can deliver those speeds from 20-inch barrels.

Never one to sit still, Dave told me even before the RCMs appeared that he planned to fashion a lever-action round to trump all others.

Equipped with a William's receiver sight, the new Marlin in .338 ME handles like a saddle gun.

“My goal is a cartridge with a flex-tip bullet that performs at .30-06 levels,” he said. The .348 Winchester carries a wicked punch at the muzzle of the Model 71, and Winchester’s 1895 rifle was chambered in .30-06. But the .348’s tube magazine shackled it to blunt bullets that quickly fell behind .30-06 spitzers. The 1895 had a box magazine, but this rifle (a favorite of Teddy Roosevelt’s) was heavy, ponderous even, compared to lively Winchester and Marlin carbines. It also became notorious for vicious recoil, a fault due largely to a low-comb stock with a curved steel buttplate.

Marlin’s new Model 1895 in .450 Marlin hits hard indeed inside 200 yards. However, simply pointing its bullet can’t give it the ballistic coefficient of longer bullets smaller in diameter. It doesn’t shoot as flat as a .30-06. With Mitch Mittelstaedt and other colleagues, Dave narrowed his choice of bullet diameters. “The .35 is just not a popular size,” he told me after I suggested a super .358. “And to get the sectional density we want, the bullet would have to be quite heavy.”