new to me Marlin 981T tube fed S/L/LR

My coworker recently passed away, and since he didn't have any heirs , and because I worked with him for nearly 2 decades, his family decided to bequeath to me his Marlin 981-T rimfire rifle. It's fairly sentimental to me because we had talked about it before he bought it, and although I never got to take him shooting, I know he would be happy knowing it's in good hands and being used and hunted with.

This was an in-between production being made as Marlin was becoming Remington's newest acquisition but it was made in the New Haven CT plant, and has microgrooved rifling. Tube magazine means it will shoot .22 Shorts/Longs/Long RifleIt also holds 25 CCI CB shorts which makes for quiet backyard plinking and pest control. I sighted it in with shorts and it's very accurate at 35yds on 4x magnification. This will make a dandy little squirrel rifle for sure!

The scope is a Tasco Golden Antler 3-9x32 AO and is surprisingly clear for what it was and when it was made.

The tube fed marlins are great little rifles. I've enjoyed every one that I've owned.

Currently I have one in 22lr and an older one in 22mag. Both are good shooters.

RedneckFur said:

The tube fed marlins are great little rifles. I've enjoyed every one that I've owned.

Currently I have one in 22lr and an older one in 22mag. Both are good shooters.

Click to expand...

I have several tube-fed Marlin 60s which are all accurate rifles that are a blast to shoot LR out of. But something about shooting CB shorts out of a levergun or a bolt action that slows me down.....and makes me a better shot

Sorry about you coworker, we also lost one of ours, never had the chance to go to the range.
Have a model 60SS with laminated stock, great shooter.

I need to pick one of those up. Love my tube fed Marlin .22s in both semi auto & lever action flavors, but don't have a bolt gun.

That model was my son’s first long gun.
We looked at several options and this is what he chose. GREATgun.

So I did the pen-spring mod for the trigger and it brought it down from 7-ish to 4.5lbs. Not too shabby. Then the trigger group screw came loose so I decided to do the sear-spring shim mod. It involved mashing a piece of lead shot flat into a disk, and dropping it into the spring cup. I also shimmed the PLASTIC trigger with aluminum foil. Last step was a drop of loctite on the TG screw and voila.......

an excellent 2.5lb target trigger on what's becoming my favorite rimfire rifle!

Didn't take any pics myself so....

So I stole this from THR forum, shamelessly. If you want a quick better trigger on any Marlin
with the T-900 trigger setup:

1. don't lose that circlip
2. replace with a lighter spring from a pen or something similar.


The upper spring shim is pretty easy to do also, just need a piece of lead shot and a pair of pliers