Breaking in a new Marlin 60

[jbishop.rwc]

I am new to rifles, and guns in general, but my son wanted a Marlin 60 for xmas so I have one on order.

Any advice on properly setting this gun up? What cleaning supplies should I get? What ammo?

[jonni]

before shooting strip it down and clean it and oil it lightly

i would use a bore snake so you can clean breech to muzzle. The design of the marlin prevents using rods going from breech to muzzle

federal bulk is good ammo. Stay away from remington gold bullets

[stand125]

I would break it down if you wanted to so you know how, but I have never cleaned a .22 before shooting it. I probably would break it down and clean it if I bought it used, but not new. It was all taken care of at the factory and again, it is just a .22. I love my Marlin 60.

[RawImpact]

it's a .22 and a marlin at that... just shoot it.

Federal ammo works good so does the 555 or 333 (winchester?)

cleaning supplies, all you need is a cheap 9 dollar kit from big5. It includes hoppes 9 and solvent as well as pads to pass through the barrel. I assume you have a flathead to dissect.

[Izzy43]

I am new to rifles, and guns in general, but my son wanted a Marlin 60 for xmas so I have one on order.

Any advice on properly setting this gun up? What cleaning supplies should I get? What ammo?

First, read the manual. It will tell you if you should clean the rifle before shooting. Walmart normally carries everything that you will need. Get a Boresnake or my personal preference is a Patch Worm which you can get on line from Patchworm.com. Even if the manual doesn't tell you to do it, I would run a boresnake or patchworm down the barrel with Hoppe's No.9 followed by a dry patch before shooting just to remove any oil that the factory treated the barrel with.

Winchester 333 or Federal 550 bulk packs will work fine. As stated by another, I would stay away from Remington Golden Bullets. They work fine for a minority of rifles but not good in a majority of them.

Learn how to remove the action from the rifle as it will get dirty after about 500 rounds down the barrel. Lots of powder residue due to the fact that the action is cycled by the round being fired so there is some blow back of powder into the action. All should be explained in the manual. Get a good aerosal cleaner for the action. There is a cleaning kit at Walmart that costs $3 or $4 that contains a plastic brissel brush, brass brush and a thingy that looks like a dental pick. Works very good for cleaning the action. Again all available in the sporting goods section at Walmart as well as the ammo. Also Federal Automatch in the white and black box (325 rounds per box) should work really well in that rifle. Cost is $15 + tax. There is also a cleaning cloth by Winchester that is great for cleaning the outside of the rifle, Costs about $4. Just wipe it down and done.

[Joe_13]

Proper barrel break-in:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRRahHX9Zkg

[JSolie]

If you run into any snags, I've found that the guys over at rimfirecentral to be very helpful. They have an entire sub-forum for the Model 60.

[roaoro]

Be careful with some solvent type cleaners. Most are not plastic friendly. I ruined my new 60's plastic trigger guard on my first "rookie" cleaning... Now, with lesson learned, I am more careful with what I use. I personally stay away from any oily lubricants, and use moly type dry lube in all my .22s. .22s get dirty quick and gum up even quicker when using oil. Some ammo shoots dirtier than others (Remington Golden Bullets). No matter what type of ammo you use, the cleaner you keep your gun, the less issues you will have. Good luck and have fun!

[chesterthehero]

be careful putting the buffer spring back in.. they like to bend and kink in the middle.. throw a few on your wishlist on mdway.com and remember to order them with your next order...

[lstrong]

Lol. I read what everyone types about cleaning their model 60's and what they feed it and it almost makes me feel bad that I shoot Remington golden bullets almost exclusively and it has not been cleaned in about 5000 rounds. Mine is a 1982 model and it has hundreds of bricks of .22 through it. My grandfather owned it before me and I let everyone shoot my little .22. I can't remember the last time it had a failure of any kind. I think that the Marlin 60 is the best .22 rifle ever made. It does what a .22 is meant to do and that is shoot tons of cheap ammo effectively with very little upkeep.

[rromeo]

That was my thought. I break-in my Marlin rifles by shooting about 5,000 rounds through it.

[olhunter]

Yep. Shoot it till it quits, then clean it. That will be a long time.

If you just think about cleaning it, it will probably start working again.

Mine went about 20,000 rounds. When I finally took it apart, it was absolutely filthy. But it still worked fine.

[lstrong]

I learned the hard way not to use any lubricants in the action. It just gums the rifle up. I have heard of people using graphite pencil lead at all of the pivot points but I never have.

[JAGACIDA]

Inevitably the day will come when you'll have to break it down and clean it, so why not familiarize yourself with the weapon right from the start. I've never seen the need to break in a barrel on a Model 60 considering the fastest projectile will be traveling at 1,600 t0 1,740 FPS.

[Ike Arumba]

The manual says the action should be oiled sparingly prior to reassembly. I'm wondering, how sparingly? There are a lot of pivots and sliding places. If I get them all, it won't seem like very sparing, especially if I spray them with an aerosol lubricant. An answers.com note on cleaning a Glenfield 60 says to use 3 or 4 drops of light oil, but there are more than 3 or 4 places that might need lubrication.