ORIGINAL: dog1
SwampCollie,
I may be wrong, but I went to Marlins' web site and I believe they do offer the new rifle in a blued version.
I only have one lever gun, but would be interested in this new one as long as I could get dies and shells for it.
I also doubt that it would ever replace the old nato 308, and that makes me wonder why they didn't just chamber the rifle in the nato round. However, the new round will give us something new to play with.
dog1
10-4. The only ones I have seen in pictures (both in magazines or online) have been laminated with stainless. I suspect that this model will cost the most, hence, it is being advertised the most. Its good that they are mixing it up for us old schoolers.
As far as your dies go...you will be able to get dies, however, because hornady is using their magic on these, you won't ever be able to acheive the same velocity/energy as they have from their factory rounds. They use some sort of powder mix and likey some sort of compressed load to get the kind of ummph out of their rounds without blowing guns up. And moreover, I doubt they will even release leverevolution bullets for me to load in my 30-30AI. So it might be a tough row to hoe for handloaders.