Has anyone ever heard of or owned a Marlin 60 rifle? I bought one just recently online that looks like this (minus the medallion)
The gun I bought was made in 1994 with the stickers still on, like-new condition (we’ll see when it arrives). I did NOT want a new Marlin as besides all the quality control issues, they have an ugly QR code on them. So I made sure to find an earlier one but still in nice shape.
I’ve been on a tube loaded .22 semi-auto kick lately and figured I’d add this classic gun to my collection. I love a tube-fed because I don’t need to carry spare mags. Just the rifle, a pocket full of .22s, and a tin can or two makes for a pleasing afternoon. And, when those mags for the mag fed guns are empty, you have to load them up again anyway.
Anyone like or have any opinion, tips, thoughts etc. on the Marlin 60 .22 rifles?
Yes I've had a few over the years they're a decent mid price rifle and the only flaw they have is the ejector is a little weak and bends easily, it's a easy fix even when they do.
They made about 20,000,000 of them. They are fine. People often compare the 60 to the Ruger 10/22 but I think the Ruger is a little nicer. But I prefer a box mag to the tube.
Yeah, they're great guns for their price range. I've had one in the past but traded it off. I still have a barreled action for one my brother gave me but I think missing too many parts to mess with. Not as much potential as a 10-22 but probably a better trigger out of the box. Plenty accurate for plinking or small game.
I have one. If I can ever get the grit out of the trigger I suspect it will be very accurate. They are a pig to clean because you cannot get a straight shot into the chamber. I know, I know, what is this cleaning a .22 of which I speak.
I have one, it is a Glenfield version made in the early '70s. They have been around a long time and proven to be good mid range rifles. Second up from the bottom. That is a Marlin magazine fed bolt action above it.
In my opinion, they are a great plinker rifle that withstands some abuse and keep on ticking. I inherited my father-in-laws old Model 60 truck gun in 1990. The rifle experienced little use and no cleaning. It still works fine today.
I owned a 2003 mfg’d Model 60 that never ran reliably. Gave it to a buddy who was glad to have it. I know my experience is an oddity as most folks love them. I’ve owned two 10/22s that didn’t work reliably- I think I’m just cursed when it comes to semi-auto 22 rifles.
One of the most popular 22 rifles of all time, The barrel is super accurate. It's all good. It ways better than the 10/22 although the 10/22 has its claim to fame as well,
I have the stainless version
Only issue is replacing the internal plastic buffer. If you need to do that PM me or post a thread as I have a link great video
Just about everyone has owned a M 60. Fine rifle, I wouldn't limit them to "plinking," good squirrel rifles, too. I like the tube mag. The 10-22 is equally great, but I wouldn't rate them any higher than a Marlin.
The Marlin 60 is the old Marlin 99.
Same rifle as the Glenfield 60.
The Marlin Model 99C was mfg'd for the longest time. From 1961 to '78.
This is the most commonly seen 'version'.
The original Model 99 (no letter suffix) was only made for a couple yrs... '59 to '61
The Marlin 99 and Glenfield 60 were made at the same time.
The Glenfield outsold the Marlin branded rifle.
When Marlin dropped the Glenfield line all together, they took the 'Model 60' from the Glenfield and tacked it onto the Marlin 99,,making the Marlin rifle the Marlin Model 60.
The 60's and early 70's Model 99 Marlin and 60 Glenfield was plagued with ejector problems.
The ejector was a cast-in-place projection on the sintered metal feed throat. . That ejector tip wore off very quickly on some batches of feed throats,,which were outside sourced by Marlin.
Many of the rifles couldn't make it through a Range trip w/o FTEject problems.
They used to come back in on warantee for repair by the pallet from BigBoxStores and FailtoEject was the usual reason.
In the early 70's a Repair Dept employee came up with the idea of using the un-used end of the torsion spring powering the cartridge lifter as the ejector. Instead of that end of the spring simply being bent and captured in the sideplate of the action under the recv'r, he made an extra long spring that wrapped around and came up and over the feed throat. Then sat in a groove filed in the old usually worn out ejector tip.
The blunt end of the spring wire was now the ejector point.
His hand made spring and fashioned ejector rifle ran around 50k rds through it w/o an ejection or feed problem in the range..
Marlin adopted the idea for the Model 99 some time later in the 70's and used it ever since then. It really saved that rifle.
The employee submitted the idea early on in one of those '$$ for ideas' plans that most factorys had then.
Clearly his idea, but got nothing for it. He was told that R&D had already thought of the idea and plans were in the works to make the mfg'ing change.
The bolt buffer in the back of the action breaks down quite often. Many just from age, they get brittle and crack. A few shots and they crumble and splinter to pieces.
If you pull the bbl'd action assembly out of the wood and there's little splinters and pieces of white or an off-yellow plastic down in the wood inlet near the back,,that stuff is the remnants of the bolt buffer.
Replacement s are generally available from places like Brownells. The Factory replacements were just that, no better than the one used to assemble the rifle and they'd last a few years and then break.
I used to make then from Delrin (sp?) and they lasted OK.
Kind of overkill I guess, but they held together.
To replace them you have to take the action off of the bottom of the alloy frame. That's easy enough.
Then you have to remove one side plate to be able to lift the buffer from the assembly.
The cross pins holding the side plates together are(were?) locked together with tiny C clips.
Most important thing is to place a bent paperclip thu the mainspring follower of the hammer spring and then trip the sear and let the hammer forward till the paperclip holds the mainspring secure against the mainspring strut.
(Kind of like taking a Ruger SAA mainspring out.)
Otherwise things fly away when you pull the side plate off...
If you remove the bolt from the recv'r, make sure you don't kink the long smal dia recoil spring when reassembling it.
Make use of the recoil spring guide rod to help slide the spring back in place.
Many do have a kink in them from hasty reassembly and still function OK. But it can play hell on extraction/ejection with some ammo especially StdVel.
The older ones didn't have a last shot bolt hold open,,I think the 'newer' ones do. Seems like one my brother had did. It was from the 80's some time. That's 'newer' in my book!
Those older mfg did have a manual bolt hold open.
Pull the bolt back and push the charging handle in and it holds the bolt open. Handy for cleaning, inspection and range etiquette.
I always think about the hundreds and more of these and Model80 series bolt 22's we destroyed because they didn't have ser#'s on them.
Sent in from those retail outlets on warantee exchanges. The customers had already gotten a new rifle in exchange. These were pre 68 mfg rifles with no ser#'s. It was now post 68.
The rifles at first were rebuilt/repaired and a new ser# stamped on them per ATF OK. Then it was decided it wasn't worth the effort. So those unser#'d rifles would be stripped for their parts, the parts refinished and the recv'rs destroyed. Then that was too much effort and time.
So the entire rifles were simply sawed into pieces and disposed of.
It's always a matter of $$. Sometimes a couple pennys one way or the other.
I am now down to just one, but have owned as many as four at the same time. I like them better than the Ruger. They seem to find me, as I have seldom had to look for one.
I have one from around 2010 or so. Yes, one of the dreaded Remlins. It's okay, but a little bit finicky with ammo. It's put lots of lead downrange, though. Honestly the 15-22s are more reliable, but maybe not as accurate.
The Marlin 60 is the old Marlin 99.
Same rifle as the Glenfield 60.
The Marlin Model 99C was mfg'd for the longest time. From 1961 to '78.
This is the most commonly seen 'version'.
The original Model 99 (no letter suffix) was only made for a couple yrs... '59 to '61
The Marlin 99 and Glenfield 60 were made at the same time.
The Glenfield outsold the Marlin branded rifle.
When Marlin dropped the Glenfield line all together, they took the 'Model 60' from the Glenfield and tacked it onto the Marlin 99,,making the Marlin rifle the Marlin Model 60.
The 60's and early 70's Model 99 Marlin and 60 Glenfield was plagued with ejector problems.
The ejector was a cast-in-place projection on the sintered metal feed throat. . That ejector tip wore off very quickly on some batches of feed throats,,which were outside sourced by Marlin.
Many of the rifles couldn't make it through a Range trip w/o FTEject problems.
They used to come back in on warantee for repair by the pallet from BigBoxStores and FailtoEject was the usual reason.
In the early 70's a Repair Dept employee came up with the idea of using the un-used end of the torsion spring powering the cartridge lifter as the ejector. Instead of that end of the spring simply being bent and captured in the sideplate of the action under the recv'r, he made an extra long spring that wrapped around and came up and over the feed throat. Then sat in a groove filed in the old usually worn out ejector tip.
The blunt end of the spring wire was now the ejector point.
His hand made spring and fashioned ejector rifle ran around 50k rds through it w/o an ejection or feed problem in the range..
Marlin adopted the idea for the Model 99 some time later in the 70's and used it ever since then. It really saved that rifle.
The employee submitted the idea early on in one of those '$$ for ideas' plans that most factorys had then.
Clearly his idea, but got nothing for it. He was told that R&D had already thought of the idea and plans were in the works to make the mfg'ing change.
The bolt buffer in the back of the action breaks down quite often. Many just from age, they get brittle and crack. A few shots and they crumble and splinter to pieces.
If you pull the bbl'd action assembly out of the wood and there's little splinters and pieces of white or an off-yellow plastic down in the wood inlet near the back,,that stuff is the remnants of the bolt buffer.
Replacement s are generally available from places like Brownells. The Factory replacements were just that, no better than the one used to assemble the rifle and they'd last a few years and then break.
I used to make then from Delrin (sp?) and they lasted OK.
Kind of overkill I guess, but they held together.
To replace them you have to take the action off of the bottom of the alloy frame. That's easy enough.
Then you have to remove one side plate to be able to lift the buffer from the assembly.
The cross pins holding the side plates together are(were?) locked together with tiny C clips.
Most important thing is to place a bent paperclip thu the mainspring follower of the hammer spring and then trip the sear and let the hammer forward till the paperclip holds the mainspring secure against the mainspring strut.
(Kind of like taking a Ruger SAA mainspring out.)
Otherwise things fly away when you pull the side plate off...
If you remove the bolt from the recv'r, make sure you don't kink the long smal dia recoil spring when reassembling it.
Make use of the recoil spring guide rod to help slide the spring back in place.
Many do have a kink in them from hasty reassembly and still function OK. But it can play hell on extraction/ejection with some ammo especially StdVel.
The older ones didn't have a last shot bolt hold open,,I think the 'newer' ones do. Seems like one my brother had did. It was from the 80's some time. That's 'newer' in my book!
Those older mfg did have a manual bolt hold open.
Pull the bolt back and push the charging handle in and it holds the bolt open. Handy for cleaning, inspection and range etiquette.
I always think about the hundreds and more of these and Model80 series bolt 22's we destroyed because they didn't have ser#'s on them.
Sent in from those retail outlets on warantee exchanges. The customers had already gotten a new rifle in exchange. These were pre 68 mfg rifles with no ser#'s. It was now post 68.
The rifles at first were rebuilt/repaired and a new ser# stamped on them per ATF OK. Then it was decided it wasn't worth the effort. So those unser#'d rifles would be stripped for their parts, the parts refinished and the recv'rs destroyed. Then that was too much effort and time.
So the entire rifles were simply sawed into pieces and disposed of.
It's always a matter of $$. Sometimes a couple pennys one way or the other.
Thanks, 2152 hq! Great info. I’ll be sure to see if any parts need replacing in mine. Advertised as “like new” and the pictures make it look fantastic but you know how online gun ads can be. Only paid about a buck fifty for it so if it’s a dud gun, not too much of a loss.
The Marlin Model 60 was the first gun I ever bought. It was in 1983, I was living in the barracks at Travis AFB and suddenly it occurred to me that I was an adult, and as an adult I could buy a gun if I wanted to. Didn't have so much as a BB gun as a kid, so I had no gun or shooting background. Drove to the Big5 in Fairfield, plunked down my money, and bought me a rifle. I put a 3-9 scope on it at one point- we used to go out in the early evening and shoot the jackrabbits at a place we called Sewer Ponds, an abandoned waste water treatment place out in Vacaville I think.
I remember standing in my room with the lights out one evening because the hot girl in the barracks next door was flitting around the room getting ready to go somewhere, realized that 3-9 scope would pretty much put me in the room with her, and so shouldered the rifle (with the action open) to "scope" her out. She dropped the straps on her tank-top to powder the boobs and I immediately started nervous shaking which pretty much meant I couldn't see anything. Sometimes the comedy writes itself.
We used to drive up to a place called Mix Canyon and baja around on the dirt roads, spend all morning to shoot off a brick of .22, then cook something over a hibachi and drink wine coolers (all the rage back then). We were poor so we bought the cheap wine coolers called Wine Time, their motto was, "It's a fine time for Wine Time".
Eventually I bought a Ruger New Model Super Single Six, mostly because it was more challenging and I didn't have to walk out so far to set up targets. I still have the Single Six- it's in the safe.
Don't have any memory of selling the 60 oddly enough. I do remember how hard to was to keep it hidden in the barracks where guns weren't allowed. After I went off to Flight School they did a sweep of the whole barracks area where my room was- they found well over 500 guns people had stashed in their rooms. They didn't find my Ruger though because they didn't want to open my locker while I was TDY. The only other gun I owned at that time was an AMT Longslide Hardballer, and it was with me in Oklahoma.
Never had a problem with that Marlin 60, and never had the slightest desire to replace it with a 10/22 either. Friend bought one, got banana clip mags and taped them together to piss his ammo away in 30 mins. He had the commando bug, so he went with it. The 10/22 caught on though, and now there are aftermarket parts galore for it, but I still have no interest. The Model 60 has a place in my heart.
I much prefer the model 60 to any 10/22.... never particularly cared for the ruger. Most accurate .22 I've ever shot was an old coast to coast branded model 60
Here is the video from MCARBO. Not promoting there stuff and did not use any of their upgrades. When I first stripped down my M60 I was a bit befuddled. Then found this video. Best I found on taking it apart. There are other sections that you can skip if just doing the buffer.
I bought a new Marlin 60, plopped a scope on it, went to the range, loaded it with CCI SV sighted it in and fired this. I have no complaints with the new Marlins. 10 rounds, 25 yards from the bench.
they are more than fine plinkers and critter gitters... the mountain of squirrels taken by them would be huge... the 10/22 is in the same arena...
I've got one with the Squirrel engraved on the grip area. I'm sure there was a reason for that, and I did take my fair share of tree rats with it. I still have it. It was gift from my father.
Bought my first rifle from the Woolco Dept Store on Belmont Ave in Liberty TWP, Youngstown, Ohio, when I was 13 years old, in 1979. It has never successfully fired a complete magazine. FTF and FTE. The serial number says it was made in 1970, so it sat in the store for 9 years before I bought it. Could not in good conscience pawn it off on someone. I plan to make a lamp out of it, eventually.
Was shocked that a .22 LR semiautomatic rifle can actually function when I saw a Ruger 10/22 for the first time.
Bought my first rifle from the Woolco Dept Store on Belmont Ave in Liberty TWP, Youngstown, Ohio, when I was 13 years old, in 1979. It has never successfully fired a complete magazine. FTF and FTE. The serial number says it was made in 1970, so it sat in the store for 9 years before I bought it. Could not in good conscience pawn it off on someone. I plan to make a lamp out of it, eventually.
Was shocked that a .22 LR semiautomatic rifle can actually function when I saw a Ruger 10/22 for the first time.
I wonder if 11 million people have had the same experience? Supposedly that’s how many Marlin 60s have been sold, must be junk right?
Essentially it is really good epoxy paint. I have coated a couple or 10/22's with it.
If you do not want to hazel with ordering and shipping, I would use a automotive paint like VHT.(or other brands) Just make sure it is not a type that requires heat curing unless you have a old oven. Caliper pint has more colors
Bought a Marlin 60 brand new from K-Mart in 1988 (IIRC).
Boringly accurate and not too difficult to clean.
It was a new enough model that it had plastic take-down pins holding the action to the receiver instead of the steel pins and circlips.
I still have it and the box and docs.
A short time after I bought it, my brother gave me a Glenfield 60 (with the "Squirrel Stock") that had a feeding problem.
I ordered a new feed throat from Marlin and it became very dependable (and accurate) again.
A short time later, a co-worker sold me a beat up Marlin 60 for cheap.
I bead blasted the metal to a satin look and refinished the stock.
It looked good and had that same Marlin dependability and accuracy.
I still have all three and not too long ago, a Ruger 1022 came to me by way of a needy friend.
I put a stainless barrel on the 1022, but have yet to shoot it.
I have often thought of selling that first 1988 Marlin 60 that I bought from K-Mart so many years ago and is still LNIB, but I just never got around to it.
The Marlin 60 was my first gun. Was a Christmas present as a kid. Still the rifle that I am more accurate than any other off hand. Recently added fiber optic sights to it. Much better for shooting in low light since the eyes are starting to age. Can't recall ever having any issues with it. No idea how many rounds I have through it. Inherited a 2nd one that was older than the one I had, it needed a good cleaning, but it so far has functioned perfectly also.
I do like the detachable mag and high capacity available for the 10/22, but never cared for the feel of the 10/22. Always hated their sights, seemed hard to aim and not as precise as the Marlin.
I've had a 60 on & off over the years as well as numerous 10/22s. I like the looks of them both, but now that I've had a 795 for a few years, I like the detachable magazine and swear it is a tad more accurate.
Bought a Model 60 about 15 years ago for plinking at the range. Put on a 4x32 Bushnell Rimfire Scope. Great shooter, accurate, reliable, fun and all for under $225.
Since then I have bought a 15-22, a 1958 Marlin Golden39A, and a 1974 Remington 572 pump. I like the tube magazine .22s. Don't shoot the Model 60 as much with the others.
Taking out the action for cleaning the bolt can be tricky. Use patience, follow instructions and don't damage recoil spring (tricky part) and you will be fine. Only took mine apart for thorough cleaning once. Check you tube for videos.
My Grandfather had a Savage copy with a plastic bolt handle. I know he put a lot of rounds through it over the years. My dad was shooting rabbits out of the garden with it when the bolt handle broke. I think he fit a metal Marlin handle in its place. I will have to check some day as the rifle became mine when my Grandfather passed. It currently resides in my dad's safe in the other side of the country. When the barn was being cleared out after my Grandmother's death, the family found an additional, apparently brand new Marlin 60 wrapped up and stored. My cousin claimed that one.
There is a third one in the family as well. In the '90s my dad bought one from a co-worker for $25. He was told it would not run. Turns out it was so dirty the bolt would barely function by hand. A good cleaning solved it. The stock was also pretty rough, and he found a fancier new one for $40. I always thought the stock resulted in a questionable return on investment.
I won a model 60 in the early 90’s at the South Carolina state USPSA March. I never shot it and wound up selling it a couple of years later. Now I wished I’d kept it. At the time I wasn’t into 22’s and owned / still own, a Ruger 10/22.
The Marlin Model 60 is a classic. Excellent rifle at a very low price.
My first rifle was a marlin Model 99M1 that my Dad gave me for Christmas when I was about 11-12. He bought it at Sears. Its the same action as the Model 60, but with a shorter barrel and stock that resembles the M1 Carbine. I foolishly sold it in the 80s, but replaced it a few years ago with another.
I consider the Ruger 10-22 to be a pretty good starter kit. But you have to put some money and parts in it to get anywhere close to a stock Model 60.
Marlin 60?
Fine rifle, I wouldn't limit them to "plinking," good squirrel rifles, too. I like the tube mag. The 10-22 is equally great, but I wouldn't rate them any higher than a Marlin.
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