New Marlin 60 Shoots All Over the Place

[Swifty Morgan]

I just bought a Marlin 60. I have a Nylon 66, but I needed something that would take a scope. I shot the Marlin today, and I was horrified.

I put a BugBuster scope on it and got it on the paper. Then I couldn't do much else with it. At about 25 yards, it was dispersing bullets 4" apart. I checked to see if the scope was tight. I switched from cheap ammo (Remington "Golden" LR) to something better (CCI Stingers), and nothing changed. I tried resting the scope. No help. I took the scope off and used the iron sights with a rest. Still pathetic.

I wondered what was going on, so I got the Remington rifle out and shot it standing up. It shot beautifully. Much better than the Marlin shot from a rest. The cheap ammo worked fine.

I gave the Marlin one more try, and although I did not have the sights where I wanted them to be, I shot very consistently into a small area. I reloaded, and it worked again. It was getting dark, so I didn't get a chance to put the scope back on and see how it worked.

Here's my question: what's going on? I have a number of guns, and I never saw one shoot like crap out of the box before. Is it possible that's what's going on here? Is it just a break-in issue? I am about ready to take this rifle back to the store.

 

[243winxb]

Scope problem.

 

[Swifty Morgan]

But it shot badly without the scope. I moved up to 50 feet or less, and it was awful. Then it cleared up for the last 10 shots or so.

I took the scope off a good air rifle, and it was working before I put it on the .22.

 

[Coyote3855]

Did you thoroughly clean the bore before you shot it? If you didn't, there might have been factory rust protectant or milling residue or some other foreign material that eventually cleared out after multiple rounds downrange. .22 rimfire firearms are notorious for shooting some ammo more accurately than others, although if you were still shooting Remington and CCI that might not be part of the problem.

When I get a new .22, I try several different brands of ammunition and bullet weights. The difference in group size can be surprising.

 

[bannockburn]

stevehgraham

I'm with what Coyote 3855 posted: give the gun a thorough cleaning, especially the barrel and try as many different brands of ammo that you can find. Overall I get great results from most CCI ammo, like their SV and MiniMags offerings, and from Wolf Match Target. Typically most bulk pack ammo does just so-so in terms of accuracy in my guns.

 

[Swifty Morgan]

I have been wondering if there could be some kind of manufacturing crud in there. I can Boresnake it and see what happens tomorrow.

The trigger on this thing is a horror. It's like you have to crush little rocks inside the receiver to make it go off. I didn't realize how great the Nylon 66 trigger was until I shot the Marlin.

The sights will be fun to work on. There are no screws, so I guess it's just bang and pray.

 

[readyeddy]

6 posts and no "get a 10/22" recommendation yet. Where is everybody?

4 inches at 25 yards is crazy. Get a refund immediately.

 

[Skylerbone]

.22 ammo is lubed and won’t begin to settle in until the entire bore is coated. With a match barrel that might be 5-10 rounds after a cleaning. For the typical inexpensive .22 barrel it’s a half box or more. Mix that with factory goo and it takes as many shots as you took before it began grouping.

 

[ColtPythonElite]

True, a cleaned bare barrel wont be its most accurate until it gets some lube on it. However, it wont shoot as bad as 4" at 25 yards, either.

 

[243winxb]

The front action screw holds the receiver in the stock. The tube feed rifle i had changed bullet impact by changing the torque on the screw. After cleaning, it needed to be sighted in again. It was very accurate, then.

Check to make sure screw is tight.

 

[WestKentucky]

Sounds like you shot out a piece of crud or maybe a burr from the crown. Whatever it was it was near the muzzle if it was shooting that poorly. One thing to note though, make sure everything is snug...Tube mag to holder, holder to barrel, stock to rifle. Anything sloppy will be detrimental to accuracy and that far forward (front of tube mag) it can be devastatingly detrimental.

Your experience is somewhat normal though. I don’t even try to sight in a rimfire until it has eaten 100 rds. I generally just do a couple good mag dumps in one to free up the action and clear the barrel of the tiny stuff that a bore brush doesn’t pick up as easily.

 

[Slamfire]

A bud of mine had a Marlin 60, I got to shoot it at 25 yards, and my recollection it held ten shots in about a dime, with cheap ammunition. I have the target somewhere, I was very surprised how well it did.

Check to see that the action screws are snug, check to see if all screws are snug. If they are, pull the action out of the stock and see if the barrel is tight to the receiver and the magazine tube is not loose. A poor trigger may be causing your problems, the M60 is light and a heavy trigger with a lot of creep will move the rifle around as you break the trigger.

Stingers are not accurate at all. They are fast, but they not accurate. Make sure you are using some standard velocity, then high velocity, LRN bullets.

In terms of barrel fouling, with match 22lr barrels, a clean barrel will place the shot within a 1/2" at 50 yards, so I am skeptical about fouling causing 4 inch groups at 25 yards. Though, it could happen, your barrel is different.

And even though it shot the same with irons, try another scope. 243winxb has a good chance of being correct. I have had any number of rings and bases get loose. Makes for a big group. I hope you did not really torque down the screws on the rings and bent your scope tube. By the way, that could be an issue, whether the rings are in line. If the rings are not on the same axis, you could have a bent scope tube.

 

[Swifty Morgan]

RE 4" groups, while I was shooting it, I got two hits very close together, followed by two flyers way up high.

 

[splattergun]

The front action screw holds the receiver in the stock. The tube feed rifle i had changed bullet impact by changing the torque on the screw. After cleaning, it needed to be sighted in again. It was very accurate, then.

Check to make sure screw is tight.

that is what I would check first thing after cleaning the gun. IN fact, I would even remove the stock while cleaning to make sure the isn't something jammed up between the barrel and stock, and even check for crud in the trigger assembly, then reassemble and verify torque on the front action screw. Check all scope ring screws and the integrity of iron sights.

 

[Charlie98]

My first rifle ever was a Marlin single-shot model 15... no magazine, no mag tube or anything... and, yep, that front action screw had better be tight.

I have a Model 60 as well, I really haven't had a chance to dial it in, but my test drive of it was much better than 4" at 50'. No, it doesn't have much of a trigger, but that is typical of Marlin .22 autoloaders.

 

[Doc7]

Man - My model 60, a “Remlin”, is extremely accurate with the factory trigger group (springs etc) although it has after market trigger itself.

It does sound like you had a burr or something.

Did you not clean the rifle before shooting? I would have thought it would have caught on the patches if it was burred this badly. Also - rifles straight from the store are filthy with months or years worth of dust and grime caught in the nasty thick factory bore protectant. I can’t even handle a new gun without a major cleaning due to all the brown sticky gunk all over it. My Mossberg 500 was the worst with that stuff.

Last thing - it is well documented that the marlin 60 screw torques affect accuracy. Careful - I upgraded to a metal trigger guard after breaking the plastic one with a 15 lb torque for group size checking. I tightened groups by over 0.25” at 50 yArds by finding the most accurate torque settings.

Not even 24 hours ago I was putting bullets into coons exactly where I wanted to hit them up in trees with my 60.

 

[Swifty Morgan]

I will report back after I go over the gun and shoot again.

 

[Picher]

Clean the bore carefully, then look at it carefully under light. I've seen some .22LR bores lately that are extremely rough. You can even feel and hear the roughness when pushing a brush through.

 

[Skylerbone]

Picher’s advice is good, I’ll add that I clean Model 60s in a cradle that keeps the barrel horizontal and with the action open and upside down to prevent excess gunk or solvents pushed from the barrel out of the action. Cotton swabs are also helpful. If you’re considering taking things apart, head over to Rimfirecentral for tutorials in the Marlin semi-auto forum.

If you have a decent cellphone camera, try zooming in under controlled lighting conditions to examine things. A shiny barrel to the naked eye can fool you into believing it is cleaner or smoother than is the case, as illustrated below.

I still think a combination of factory preservatives, no wax lubrication, so-so ammo, and the horrendous trigger of newer Model 60s combined to ruin your group size. The good news is that all of those factors can be eliminated to leave you with an incredibly accurate rifle. I would invest in CCI MiniMags and Federal AutoMatch to see if either shrinks group size further.

Bore light at the muzzle makes everything look brand new.


89 year old chamber after its initial cleaning showing build-up and pitting in the throat with some magnification.

 

[carbine85]

I have an older 60 that out shoots any of my others including the 1022.
I wouldn't be using a BB gun scope even if it's not your problem. You can get a good .22 scope for under $100.
The trigger on these rifles are usually pretty nice and easy to improve.
With Eley or Wolf match I can put them in a nickle size hole at 50 yards.

 

[Swifty Morgan]

The BugBuster scope is actually pretty neat. People use them on air rifles because most rifle scopes fall apart when subjected to air gun recoil.

It works well on my RWS 54 air rifle, which subjects scopes to monstrous recoil.

 

[Walkalong]

Then it cleared up for the last 10 shots or so.

Did you thoroughly clean the bore before you shot it? If you didn't, there might have been factory rust protectant or milling residue or some other foreign material that eventually cleared out after multiple rounds downrange.

.22 ammo is lubed and won’t begin to settle in until the entire bore is coated.

Could be folks are right all it needs is a good cleaning and then running some rounds through it. Or they are right and the rings are loose. It never hurts to try another scope if everything proves to be tight.

 

[Picher]

Picher’s advice is good, I’ll add that I clean Model 60s in a cradle that keeps the barrel horizontal and with the action open and upside down to prevent excess gunk or solvents pushed from the barrel out of the action. Cotton swabs are also helpful. If you’re considering taking things apart, head over to Rimfirecentral for tutorials in the Marlin semi-auto forum.

If you have a decent cellphone camera, try zooming in under controlled lighting conditions to examine things. A shiny barrel to the naked eye can fool you into believing it is cleaner or smoother than is the case, as illustrated below.

I still think a combination of factory preservatives, no wax lubrication, so-so ammo, and the horrendous trigger of newer Model 60s combined to ruin your group size. The good news is that all of those factors can be eliminated to leave you with an incredibly accurate rifle. I would invest in CCI MiniMags and Federal AutoMatch to see if either shrinks group size further.

Bore light at the muzzle makes everything look brand new.
View attachment 781036

89 year old chamber after its initial cleaning showing build-up and pitting in the throat with some magnification.
View attachment 781037

Pitting is minimal on .22LRs due to the preservative tendency of the wax bullet coating. However, if cleaned and not preserved, they can rust. (I usually put a coat of Break-Free after solvent, but also store guns in a warm, dry place).

 

[HOWARD J]

I just bought a Marlin 60. I have a Nylon 66, but I needed something that would take a scope. I shot the Marlin today, and I was horrified.

I put a BugBuster scope on it and got it on the paper. Then I couldn't do much else with it. At about 25 yards, it was dispersing bullets 4" apart. I checked to see if the scope was tight. I switched from cheap ammo (Remington "Golden" LR) to something better (CCI Stingers), and nothing changed. I tried resting the scope. No help. I took the scope off and used the iron sights with a rest. Still pathetic.

I wondered what was going on, so I got the Remington rifle out and shot it standing up. It shot beautifully. Much better than the Marlin shot from a rest. The cheap ammo worked fine.

I gave the Marlin one more try, and although I did not have the sights where I wanted them to be, I shot very consistently into a small area. I reloaded, and it worked again. It was getting dark, so I didn't get a chance to put the scope back on and see how it worked.

Here's my question: what's going on? I have a number of guns, and I never saw one shoot like crap out of the box before. Is it possible that's what's going on here? Is it just a break-in issue? I am about ready to take this rifle back to the store.

next time buy a ruger 10/22--you will be happy.

 

[saiga308]

I just bought a Marlin 60. I have a Nylon 66, but I needed something that would take a scope. I shot the Marlin today, and I was horrified.

I put a BugBuster scope on it and got it on the paper. Then I couldn't do much else with it. At about 25 yards, it was dispersing bullets 4" apart. I checked to see if the scope was tight. I switched from cheap ammo (Remington "Golden" LR) to something better (CCI Stingers), and nothing changed. I tried resting the scope. No help. I took the scope off and used the iron sights with a rest. Still pathetic.

I wondered what was going on, so I got the Remington rifle out and shot it standing up. It shot beautifully. Much better than the Marlin shot from a rest. The cheap ammo worked fine.

I gave the Marlin one more try, and although I did not have the sights where I wanted them to be, I shot very consistently into a small area. I reloaded, and it worked again. It was getting dark, so I didn't get a chance to put the scope back on and see how it worked.

Here's my question: what's going on? I have a number of guns, and I never saw one shoot like crap out of the box before. Is it possible that's what's going on here? Is it just a break-in issue? I am about ready to take this rifle back to the store.

did you try standard velocity CCI rounds?
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