The Original Cheap 22

Marlin 60 a “Cheap 22” worth its weight in Gold

Once a gun hits the 1 million units produced you can usually safely say that it has staying power.  The Marlin Model 60 has hit that mark twelve times over. With some 12 million units in circulation, the Marlin Model 60 certainly has staying power.  You could say the reason is because it’s such a Cheap 22.  But simply being a cheap 22 does not an interesting or well-loved gun make. A major factor in the popularity of the Marlin 60 is the fact that it is an incredible value and keeps on keeping on.

As a gunsmith, I’m used to Bag-o-gun; I’ve seen my fair share of Bag-o-Marlin-60, but very rarely were their other associated issues with the firearm, and most often it was a simple spring replacement and a re-assembly that did the trick for my customers. I rarely had concerns with this cheap 22, and I personally have put at least 250k rounds through the tube magazine and eventually through the bore, so there must be countless millions and billions of rounds associated with the rifle throughout its history.

*Note: I broke a Marlin 60 during firing once and injured my finger pretty badly (nothing too life threatening) but I couldn’t pull a trigger for at least two months.  I didn’t sue the company, and it WAS a defect in manufacturing.  The receiver was weak at a bubble in the casting, and broke sending chunks of aluminum everywhere.  After that I haven’t bought another, but it’s more an indication that I have other new loves in the world of the cheap 22 (namely the Savage Mark II FV-SR and the Ruger 10-22, amongst others).  I’m not afraid to shoot the Marlin 60, and have many times since, I just haven’t bought another one for my own collection.

Despite my single issue with the Marlin 60, it has always been a favorite recommendation when budget dictated a strict price point for my customers, or for when someone admitted early on that they had a tendency to avoid cleaning their guns. This cheap 22 is more inexpensive than it is cheap.

A Cheap 22 that just doesn’t stop working

The thing about this cheap 22 (the Marlin 60, that is), is that it’s probably the most gunk tolerant auto-loader on the planet.  It’s a cheap 22 that’s made for enjoyment, not constant cleaning. I have seen Marlin 60’s that have only failed after the amount of greasy unburnt powder and copper shavings or brass bits have completely clogged up every open space on the recoil spring.  I have seen Marlin model 60’s that have only failed after the amount of lead and shooting debris on the bolt face was so substantial that it actually locked the gun out of battery on each shot: nothing a little scraping with a pocket knife or an aggressive bit of work with a lint free cloth cannot fix.  It’s nothing a little Hoppe’s #9 can’t fix on the bench back at the shop, or on the kitchen table, depending on how much your mom or girlfriend or wife lets you get away with.

The original “Cheap 22” has always been inexpensive

The dirt and debris is nothing that causes any concern for the owner of this cheap 22: Marlin 60’s are accurate, lightweight, reliable and cheap.  22 LR Rifles are usually “cheap” relative to other calibers, but this rifle has always been the low price leader.  As a dealer I would frequently see the rifle drop below the $80 range, and I rarely saw it sell for more than $150 anywhere. On the low end it retails now for just about $170, being worth every penny. One of the reasons the gun has always been so cheap is that they moved early on from a walnut stock to a birch stock, which was much easier to make.  One of the reasons the gun has never been a CHEAP 22, is that they do things like using a brass tubular magazine instead of a steel one, which promotes rust and feeding concerns from pitting and other reasons.

Semi-High-Capacity Cheap 22 LR

It was optimized for the 22LR cartridge instead of the competing guns at the time and preceding it (being made to use the .22 Short/Long/LR), so it had a bit less versatility in that regard.  When was the last time you shot a .22 Short or a “Long” for that matter, those are cartridges that were made obsolete for a reason; they weren’t all that useful and left something to be desired in many cases compared to the .22 LR.

Additionally, the tubular magazine was a bit ahead of its time with a capacity of 18 rounds (with one in the chamber) prior to the model design change of the Model 60 in the Early 1980’s.  After that design change which shortened the barrel (among other things), the gun had a 14+1 capacity, compared to other rifles’ 5; 7; 8; or 10 round capacity oftentimes.

Marlin 60: A very accurate and cheap 22

The Marlin 60 uses a “micro-groove rifling” which doesn’t actually mean much except that it has a modified button rifling production method, whereby a single tungsten carbide cutting head is pulled with controlled force at relatively fast speeds to cut grooves that are shallower than the standard multi-cut rifling of the time (which Marlin called Ballard rifling).  The cutter produced a shallower rifling profile and beveled the edges of the rifling grooves and lands, allowing for less fouling, easier cleaning and less bullet deformation.  Idealistically however, Marlin was using the “micro-groove” rifling process to keep costs lower and save a ton of machine time.  They could produce barrels in less than 15 seconds with this method, compared to the 55-65 minutes it required with a multi-pass rifling technique.  The process required a larger bore diameter at its widest though, and despite being very accurate for small projectiles, it later caused some concern for some shooters on larger centerfire rifles using cast bullets.  The oversized bore dimension caused there to be a gap between the outside diameter of the cast bullet and the rifling such that the bullet was not fully supported when it was cast to certain dimensions.

Very few problems with this Cheap 22

The Marlin 60, as mentioned before is about as gunk tolerant and accurate/reliable/easy to use as one could expect.  It sometimes sees problems caused by overuse, with certain springs becoming too weak to function or too heavy a concentration of debris built up under an extractor for too long. The parts are cheap; the ammunition is cheap and the gun just exists to be used.  Grab a few friends or the kids, grab some cheap 22 ammo (a case load) and take this cheap 22 out for some shooting.

Other “Cheap 22″ Articles on www.Netgunsmith.com:

Savage Mark II FV-SR

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