Replacement Model 60 More Accurate Than Crosman BB Gun

Remington/Marlin came through for me. The gun they sent to replace my defective Marlin Model 60 arrived, and it appears to work. Bonus: the stock is nicely figured.

For those who don’t memorize every trivial detail of my life, I will provide a recap. I bought a Model 60 to kill coons at night. Florida won’t let me shoot coons at night with a light with any other caliber. When I tried the gun, it shot worse than the BB gun I had when I was 10. I’m not kidding. I had no trouble killing innocent songbirds on telephone wires with the BB gun. The Marlin wasn’t accurate enough to do that. I got groups something like 5 inches wide at 50 feet.

I took the gun back to Gander Outdoors, where I ran into their upsetting return policy: they don’t. By that I mean, they don’t accept returns. They will, however, ship a crappy new gun back to the factory for you. They mailed my .22 caliber blunderbuss to Remington, and I waited a month or so.

Why Remington? Because Remington bought Marlin. It’s a long boring story I don’t actually remember well enough to tell.

Remington called me by mistake, thinking they were calling Gander Outdoors, and I asked what was up with the gun. The lady on the line said they were sending a new one instead of fixing the one I bought. That was maybe a couple of weeks ago. I picked the new gun up last week.

Interesting legal tidbit: if a gun maker sends you a replacement gun, you have to go through a new background check. It’s really stupid, but if the serial number on the gun you take home is different from the one on the gun the factory kept, the FBI wants to hear from you. So I had to stand around for 20 minutes while the store guys did their thing. The gun hadn’t been inventoried, so I also had to wait while they fixed that.

I thought about selling the gun without shooting it. These guns have bad triggers, and a lot of people think quality control suffered when Remington took over. Then I realized no local buyer would give me a significant break on a new gun. If I say the gun hasn’t been fired, I know what the response will be: “As soon as it leaves the store, it’s USED.” I spent $170 on this thing, and people would probably try to pay me $130 locally, regardless of whether it’s new or just nearly new, so it seemed to me that I would lose little or nothing by trying it out.

Take that, bottom fishermen. Thought you were going to lowball me, did you? Ha! Go to the store and pay full price like I did.

I threw my old Bushnell rimfire scope on the gun and went out to the pasture. I was not willing to put up a rest and a table. I just wanted to see if the gun would shoot reasonably straight. I sat in the golf cart something like 22 long paces from the berm, and I shot with the gun resting on my left hand, which was resting on the steering wheel.

I am ahead of my time. Some day all military snipers will shoot from golf carts.

I used Remington Golden Bullets, which are the bullet equivalent of the battered golf balls driving ranges put in buckets. In fact, you can buy a bucket of Golden Bullets at your local gun store. A lot of people hate Golden Bullets, claiming they fail to fire and complaining that they’re dirty. But here’s a list of their redeeming features:

1. They’re cheap.

Golden Bullets failed to fire several times in the original gun, but today they worked just fine, except for one stovepipe.

I don’t know how other people zero scopes. I shoot, and then I guess how many clicks the scope knobs need, and I crank away. I end up with strings of bullet holes leading toward the center of the bullseye. That’s what I did today, and you can see it in the photo below. I shot at the center of the target, to zero the scope, and then I fired two 10-round groups to the sides. I got two big holes, which is good enough. Once I put a sling and studs on the gun, I can use a bipod and see if I can do better.

I’m starting to think I should rig the golf cart up so I can use it as a shooting bench. It’s shady and comfortable.

The gun’s trigger is beyond heinous. You pull and pull, and sometimes you wonder if the safety is still on. If you’re me, sometimes it is. If it’s not, the gun eventually fires, but because you’ve been thinking so much about the crappy trigger, you’ve forgotten about the point of aim, so your accuracy suffers.

Now that I know the barrel is okay, I know it’s safe to invest a few bucks in a better trigger.

Maybe the Model 60 is still a good gun, even after Remington.

Speaking of Remington, I took my Nylon 66 out and blasted my spinning metal target using iron sights. I hit the 4″ target 7 times out of 10, which is okay, when you factor in the knowledge that I don’t know where the rifle is sighted in. I would guess that I last adjusted the sights in about 1975. To find out where the bullets are actually going, I will need to use a paper target.

It’s a shame that gun won’t cooperate with a scope, because it’s a joy to shoot.

I still suspect I should have gotten a Ruger 10/22 instead of the Marlin. They say Rugers are less accurate, but you can improve them. I don’t know.

I think I only “need” one more rifle, and as I believe I’ve written, that’s the 6.5×55 Swedish, which is pretty similar to the 6.5 Creedmoor. It will ethically kill any creature in North America, certain large feminists excluded, and it’s super accurate and works great at long distances.

Once I have a 6.5 Swedish or Creedmoor bolt gun, my life will be complete. Until I realize I need something else.

Amusing side note: this week some friends came to see me, and they graciously agreed to move some things up from Miami for me. They were a little surprised when they found themselves hauling maybe 3000 rounds of ammunition. They wondered what the police would think. They made it, however, so I guess there is nothing to complain about. Sadly, even after all the shipments my friends and I have made, I still have a thousand or so rounds to bring up here. I have almost nothing in 7.62mmx54R.

Things are shaping up. Now I have to get the .204 Ruger and night scope working, and after that, it’s coyote-popping time. Once that happens, I will give everyone the word so they can sell their stock in Acme Products.