I need help with a Marlin model 60 .22 rifle

A

AmadeusM

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I have had it since early 90s, and fired only a box of ammo with it and I started noticing that 2 out of 3 shots are misfires.

I assume/hope it has to be something simple and fixable.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.
 
Go to the gun store and buy one box of every kind of .22LR ammo they have. Try them out. First see which ones work reliably, then see which of the reliable ones is most accurate in that gun.

If none of them work reliably then there's a problem with the gun, but even so once you fix that you'll want to try them all -- and start over every time you get a new .22 gun. They're all different.
 
If the gun hasn't been fired much it could have old oil in the firing mechanism (around the hammer or firing pin) that has oxidized and thickened. It might help to clean the action with a solvent and re-oil with a light gun oil. Also check that you don't have something like lint in the action somewhere. Another posibility is that you are using old ammunition. If you store ammo in a hot and/or humid place the primer compound in the cartridges might start to get unreliable. You haven't solved your problem until it will reliably fire all brands of new ammunition. If cleaning it doesn't make that happen, take it to a gunsmith.
 
I would clean it before I tried anything else. If the chamber is dirty, rounds may hang up and keep the bolt from closing all the way. When the firing pin hits, it just moves the shell forward rather than crimping the rim.
Could also be dirt, or dried up oil around the firing pin keeping it from moving forward with enough force.

Rimfire rounds are also fairly tempermental about how they're stored. The primers have a tendency to go bad. So if the ejected shells that misifired have crimped rims, you're probably just dealing with a batch of bad ammo. I would still thoroughly clean the action though.
 
If it has been dry fired a bunch, you may have a burr on the edge of the chamber.

Cleaning is often a cure as mentioned above.


Thomas Zinn
 
I had one that was very unreliable. Cleaned it, tried lots of ammo, etc. Even took it to a gunsmith with little success. That particular rifle was a waste of money.

My grandfather had a nice lever action 22lr that got me through my high school years on the farm so, things weren't a lost cause beyond the money spent on that rifle.
 
What ammo were you using? I had some bum Remmy that would hit maybe 20% of the time.

You didn't mention, but have you tried different fresh ammo?

My first rifle was a Mod. 60. Digested anything.

If changing ammo doesn't help, it's probably mechanical, and needs to visit a smith.
 
Thanks for your answers. :)

Bought the rifle in '92. Went shooting for the first and last time in 95 or 96, squirrel hunting. Took one box of Winshester ammo and after a few shoots I noticed the misfires, so it was clean at the time. I will have to try your suggestions.

I have dry-fired it several times before that. :o

In any case, I never really liked it, and I have no idea why I bought the damn thing. Cost me 99 bucks at the time, and I don't think I wanna spend any more money on it, so if I can resolve the situation on my own, fine.
 
Oh, now I get it -- we're talking about a brand new gun here. It probably just needs a little breaking in. They often haven't been oiled at all when you buy them, so the first step is to clean and oil it.
 
Marlins (all autoloading .22s) respond better to hi-velocity loads. A lot of folks, myself included, like to save a little money and get better accuracy (and possibly a safety factor) going with standard loads. The blowback action of most autoloaders responds much better to the hi-velocity loads. Trying various brands helps too.
 
I have one of these and it hardly ever jams and I shoot it a LOT. But the only ammo I use in it is Winchester Wildcat (lead round nose) and Winchester SXT I never have any troube with either. And I clean and lube it with G96 (great stuff) the day before and right after shooting. BTW if you let it get dirty it WILL jam. It seems if I read right that you had the gun a couple of years before firing it, if that is true any factory oil would have long been evaporated, it probably just needs to be cleaned/lubed, if that doesn't work take it to a gunsmith. Also, give it a chance the model 60 has a sweet trigger and is very accurate for a semi-auto. If you don't like it try the Marlin 795, which is what I shoot more often now, it has a 10 shot detachable magazine instead of the tube like the model 60. Hope this helps.
 
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