How to Reconfigure My Marlin 60 Rifles

[DMW1116]

I have two Marlin 60/Glenfield 22 rifles, on from my childhood and the other inherited. Both are from the era when they were equipped with longer barrels and 17-round tubular magazines, which is sometime around the late 70s or early 80s, though neither has LRBHO. I have one mounted with a 3-9 Nikon Rimfire scope and the other wears its original factory sights. I also have a set of Tech Sights for the original version. The front sight of this one is secured by a single screw and can easily be replaced with the Tech Sights front sight post. The other has a different method to secure the front sight, though I don't remember what it is right now.

My question concerns recent shooting of these rifles. The one with factory sights hasn't shot terribly well in the past and requires HV 22 ammo to be reliable. This is why I removed the Tech Sights and restored the slightly less precise factory sights. The other has shot quite well in the past, but recently it has been spraying bullets in all directions, relative to what I thought it would do. It's not terrible, but not what I expected based on the last time I shot it. I've been shooting my Henry H001 a fair bit lately and it will outshoot both of them assuming I do my part. This might be due to the factory triggers in the Marlins. The Henry trigger is noticeably better in terms of pull weight (lighter) and smoothness. My recently purchased Ruger 10/22 will also outshoot the Marlins as long as it's fed standard velocity ammo. With HV ammo, it's about the same as the 60s.

The Nikon scope is quite nice, and I feel it's sort of a waste to leave it on the Marlin when my other rifles shoot more accurately. My current plan is to remove the scope and sight in the factory sights on the now-scoped Marlin. Then, I'll re-install the Tech Sights on the other version. With that done, I'd like to move the scope to the 10/22 and leave the Henry alone. It just works too well as it came from the factory. What would any of you do in terms of configuring the Marlins while not overshooting their perhaps limited potential? FWIW I also have Tech Sights on the Ruger. For anyone that's ever put them on one, you know the front sight post isn't coming off easily.

Ultimately, my best solution may be to dial the Marlins in and semi-retire them. They aren't made any more. If Ruger starts making them again, they may or may not be compatible with my old ones. Parts are hard to find or pretty expensive. Their actions are somewhat less rugged than that of a 10/22, at least from my limited research on the topic.

 

[conan32120]

When's the last time you stripped them down and gave them a thorough cleaning? Mine is wonderfully accurate and reliable. But I do strip mine down on occasion to get all that unburned powder out of it.

 

[Varminterror]

As unpopular as it is to say it about 22LR's, I'd clean the bore down to bare metal - check on the buffer condition, clean the FCG and feeder, and give them both a once over, top to bottom, while you have them apart.

There's something to be said about preserving a couple of vintage 17shot 60's, BUT... to be honest, I'd shoot the hell out of them, and I might even buy a few newer manufacture individuals just to have the donor parts available. The Marlin Model 60 was the highest production count of any model of civilian rifle ever made - even if Ruger/Marlin doesn't start making them again, so it's not necessarily going to become collectible or highly valuable at any point in time - "higher priced" than they used to be, eh, maybe, but that's not saying much in 2024. So I'd be shooting them.

 

[wesmonster]

If accuracy was good but dropped off, I'd suspect either lead fouling or damage to the crown.
Are you shooting the same ammo?
I'd start with some Hoppe's no.9 and a new bronze wire brush and clean that bore. If it was good before, it can be good again. Rimfires rarely ever get shot out and Marlins have good barrels on average.

 

[DMW1116]

All good points. I haven’t shot either since last year sometime. I’ll see what a good scrub does.

I’m using the same ammo. The scoped one seemed to prefer CCI SV or Aguila HV. They shot about the same except the Aguila hit higher. The other one wouldn’t cycle SV ammo but seemed to like the Aguila as well as Blazer.

 

[wesmonster]

I don't own a mod. 60 but have several older Marlins (50s to 70s) and I'd hold on to both. The last production years of the 60s were shadows of how well made the earlier ones were. I do have a Revelation 150 which is a rebranded Marlin mod. 49 which is the predecessor to the 60. Still an excellent shooter.
Your 60s are not cheap entry level rifles, they're quality built rifles made back when good skilled labor was still affordable.

I also have a Henry pump rifle and agree they're great shooters. But if Ruger rolls out the 60 again it'll either cut a lot of corners for a price or cost a fortune.

Just be aware the 60 is complicated internally and not the easiest to dissassemble. If it's functioning, I wouldn't open it up unless you've watched a few videos and have some patience. Just scrub the bore and clean what you can get to.

 

[5whiskey]

Law at the rounds I've put through a Marlin model 60 and maybe only cleaned the bore real well 3 or 4 times. The rifle will shoot well for 1k rounds at least. At least we'll enough to hit the cap of a drink bottle at 30 yards. Electric fence insulators at 50 if you do your part (and then I cussed myself as a teenager herding cows back in 2 hours later... yeah I was young smd stupid).

 

[DMW1116]

I’ve taken them apart several times but I’ve never taken the fcg apart. The buffers are fine as best I can tell.

The last time I shot the scoped one, it put 5 or 6 shots in a horizontal row all touching in the 2” red center of a dirty bird target at 100 yards. When I tried CCI SV, it shot a group at 75 yards the size of a dime. When I tried this weekend it was shooting tennis ball sized groups at 50 yards. If I shoot this weekend I’ll try them again.

I suppose it could be me. I’ve been shooting a lot more pistol lately or shooting hand loads for testing, so only a few shots at a session. I’ll clean them and give them a couple more trips before changing anything.

 

[conan32120]

The fire control group comes off as a single unit and can be cleaned with a aerosol cleaner/lubricant without further disassembly, the bolt pops out easily, a quick wiping and some lube puts it back in business. With the bolt out might as well run a bore brush down the barrel. As a kid I took mine down and filed down the sear disconnect to try my hand at making it fully automatic but that's a story for a different time.

 

[doubleh]

If I read the OP correctly the one that has the scope is the one that has gone haywire. I would first check for loose screws. None found I would do as Varminterror suggested and give it a good cleaning. No joy with either and I would try a known good scope. There is a reason why it became inaccurate and that just needs to be traced down.