Marlin 60 1st shot flier..... Every time

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jcornSS

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Picked up another Marlin 60 a while back. Finally got a chance to do a little shooting with it and she's not too shabby....... Other than the 1st round, chambered with the charging handle. I've tried full slingshot to riding the bolt down gently and everything in between. It seems to like mini mags. Will shoot 4 rounds touching at 30 yards with the 1st round outside the group. At 50 the 4 rounds are easily into an inch, with of course, the 1st round an inch out of the group.

I'm sure it's something to do with being manually charged vs the bolt operating on its own. Anyone else ever had this or know of a fix?
 
Tim said:
Do you always clean after you shoot? Is the barrel oily for that first shot?
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No I don't. Maybe clean every few hundred rounds. This isn't just the 1st round of the day. It's every 1st round after reloading the mag.
 
Wierd! I have one, and I do not recall it ever throwing a flier, esp. not so consistenly.


EDIT: ...throwing a flier that couldn't be blamed on ME.


I liked Tim's question, but seems it's moot. I clean mine... often... sometimes... sometimes not so often.

Curious as to what the issue is/ what the fix is.
 
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I have several Marlin .22 rifles with Micro Groove barrels. The micro grooves are shallower than standard rifling and do not engrave (distort) a bullet as deeply as conventional rifling. It may be quite possible on your individual rifle, that in a cold barrel (first shot) these shallower groove do not impart the proper spin on the bullet but as the rifle barrel steel heats up and expands the issue goes away.
 
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pirate said:
I have several Marlin .22 rifles with Micro Groove barrels. The micro grooves are shallower than standard rifling and do not engrave (distort) a bullet as deeply as conventional rifling. It may be quite possible on your individual rifle, that in a cold barrel (first shot) these shallower groove do not impart the proper spin on the bullet but as the rifle barrel steel heats up and expands the issue goes away.
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It's not just the 1st round of the day. It's the 1st round after every reload.
 
Commonly known problem. You are correct as its the bolt seating the rounds on its own vs you manually chambering it. Some guns show this more than others. If I was out squirrel hunting, I would just fire the manually loaded round safely into the ground before venturing off.

CD
 
Its a known issue with some .22 autoloaders. Not all do it, but many do. Just due to how the first round is chambered vs. all of the following rounds. If you're shooting for accuracy, put the first round into the berm or into a sighter targer, and not into your group target. When hunting, do like Combat Diver recommends, and fire the first round into a safe backstop before hitting the woods.
 
First off, stop cleaning it until it tells you it wants to be cleaned! It will tell you by malfunctions, FTFeed, FTE.....
Second, when you're loading it lock the charging handle to the rear and load to it's capacity and then put pressure on the tube while pulling out smartly on the charging handle so it closes on it's own accord, then seat the tube. Do not ride the charging handle.
 
In my original post I was thinking of a vertical type removable mag. Sometimes, when the mag is full and the spring fully compressed, the top round can drag on the bolt enough to affect the function. I suggested loading one round in the mag, chambering it, then load the rest of the mag and fire a group to see if that caused a flyer like a full mag.

About two seconds after posting that, I realized a Marlin 60 was tube fed, and that I am an idiot.

So I deleted the post, and will shut up now.
 
Bailey Boat said:
First off, stop cleaning it until it tells you it wants to be cleaned! It will tell you by malfunctions, FTFeed, FTE.....
Second, when you're loading it lock the charging handle to the rear and load to it's capacity and then put pressure on the tube while pulling out smartly on the charging handle so it closes on it's own accord, then seat the tube. Do not ride the charging handle.
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I really don't clean much. I don't clean the action until they start feeling noticably gritty and don't clean barrels until I see groups open up.

In pulling the CH fully to the rear and letting go like a sling shot but I'll try locking it fully back like you said. Can you explain putting pressure on the tube?
 
I'm no great expert by any means, but I've had that tube magazine on and off of my Model 60 a couple of times. It wasn't for performance issues, just to install a sling swivel, then remove it. Not fun. It shouldn't have anything to do with the first shot being off. Once it feeds the round, it's role is complete as far as I can tell. Perhaps he meant giving the bolt a bit of forward assist just to make sure it's really in there? Then the explosive cycling of the action hits way harder than slingshotting, completely seating the bolt?

Since it's a new Remlin like mine, it could maybe take a bit before the receiver gets all polished up and broke in. I can't say because I didn't take it out expecting great results, just to relearn the basics since I hadn't owned a gun in many years.

If it won't change regardless, I would take CD's advice and waste the first one. You've got thirteen more!
 
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jcornSS said:
Can you explain putting pressure on the tube?
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If the bolt is locked back and you have the maximum number of cartridges in the magazine the tube won't fully seat and lock. Place your finger over the end of the tube and apply light pressure so that when you release the bolt it feeds the first cartridge into the loading ramp. THEN slingshot to bolt to feed a round into the chamber.
I know it sounds like holding your thumb while sucking on your little finger but I had an older Mod 60 that would mangle the first round unless I did it as described.
 
Thanks for the info Bailey. I learn something new everyday reading these forums. I suggested that you meant bolt because I've had the tube off of mine and it didn't seem to effect anything and if there is a way to screw up something like that I figured I could manage to do it having never done it before. I only did it because it's an inexpensive rifle and I wouldn't be out much, otherwise I would have taken it to a gunsmith. I didn't notice anything different about it afterwards.

I've got a Lead Sled Solo coming this week, so now I guess it's time to get serious and really see just how accurate it really is with special attention to the first shot.
 
How many different brands and types (hp vs solid) of ammo have you tried. Every 22 I have has a preference.
 
Dan said:
How many different brands and types (hp vs solid) of ammo have you tried. Every 22 I have has a preference.
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Yes. This rifle shoots mini mags into one ragged hole other than the very 1st round loaded from the magazine.
 
Got my old model 60 out..... Another one, that I've had since I was a kid. Put an extra scope on it that I had laying around. Took both m60s to the range for a little comparison. My old childhood model 60 shoots no fliers. Very consistent, one ragged hole at 30 yards.

This was gonna be a rifle for my daughter. The application is such that she can't just dump the 1st round. I guess I'll be letting her use my old model 60 instead.
 
I can't help but ponder if the situation is opposite. In other words, the first shot is dead nuts and the rest are skewed.

Is there consistency to the first shot flyer?

For example, manually chamber 10 shots in a row. Do they group?

I'm just thinking outside the box, no experience at all to back it up.
 
Almost every autoloader .22 suffers from this problem to some degree. I've heard it explained that it is the way the bolt returns to battery being shot vs any manual operation of the bolt. I have a Ruger 10/22 with a THM Volquartsen barrel and it still will have a first round flier at times and I've spent too many dollars and time trying to resolve the issue.

<>< Fish
 
My 60 never had this problem, how many rounds do you put in the tube? It specifies 14, if I remember, but I often go 15 (since the loader holds that many). I sometimes drop the bolt from the manual lock, I sometimes slingshot, never noticed a diff.

As for the ammo question, it seems that hollowpoints, the faster the better, are the best for accuracy (1 hole to dime sized groups at 50 yds on a sandbag with the original trigger, I put a KAT in it and now it is even better). The best I ever found was a particular lot of Winchester plated HP HV - can't remember the weight (probably 36 gr), but I bought a bunch of them (in the late 80's) and sadly they are all gone.

This gun is circa 1985 (got it new at Service Merchandise in Upstate NY along with my Mossberg 500 20ga).
 
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