Marlin Model 60 Surprises

Sometimes China is right.

I have been trying to shoot squirrels with a Savage A22 rifle and a Nikon Prostaff II Rimfire scope. The scope gets great reviews all over the web, and that’s why I bought it. I figured experts and people who had actually used the scope knew better than I did.

I have gotten fed up with the scope. It’s always blurry. The diopter adjustment seems to do nearly nothing. There is no parallax adjustment. You’re stuck at 50 yards. All sorts of liars claim they shoot squirrels in the head with .22 LR at 50 yards, but it’s physically impossible to do it reliably unless you have a fantastic rifle, top-notch ammunition, and a rest that compares to a bench. And the squirrel has to help.

The Nikon has no illumination. Once you’ve used illuminated scopes, you don’t want to go back. It doesn’t have target turrets. It doesn’t come with end caps. The minimum focus distance is significantly longer than the minimum squirrel distance.

I do not like it.

A long time ago, I wasted a lot of money on an expensive air rifle, and I put a UTG Bugbuster scope on it. I thought the scope was kind of a toy. The Chinese make a lot of low-quality optics baited with features. In fact, however, it’s much better than the Nikon.

1. It’s very clear, and the diopter adjustment works.

2. It has an illuminated reticle with a choice of two colors.

3. It has target turrets.

4. It comes with end caps.

5. The parallax is adjustable.

6. It focuses all the way down to living room distances. Not that I’m suggesting anything.

Yesterday, I did something I was putting off. I took the Marlin Model 60 out and zeroed it at 50 yards with the Bugbuster and CCI Mini-mags. I remembered to bring my rear bag, but I forgot my front rest. I put a few rounds in one bullseye, but they were spaced out pretty badly because I didn’t have a good rest. I adjusted the turrets and mashed up my range bag so it performed as a makeshift rest.

I fired. Center of the bullseye. I fired again. Center of the bullseye. I fired a third time. Center of the bullseye.

After that, I quit. I wasn’t sure my shots weren’t flukes, because there were only three, but it was getting dim out, and I was excited. I wanted to kill some squirrels.

When I went to pick up the target, I saw that all three shots had gone into about a quarter-inch hole. No, I did not miss the target with two shots. It was obvious three shots had landed.

I headed over to squirrelville, and on the way, I thought about the crow I was going to have to eat.

I have criticized the Marlin 60 for good reason. The guts are cheap. The factory trigger is disgusting. The quality control is sub-Chinese. The gun doesn’t come with swivels, and it’s made so major surgery is required to install a real forward swivel that doesn’t put pressure on the barrel. I bought a Savage A22, which is a real gun made from real parts. The Savage comes with swivels, a much better set of iron sights, a fantastic adjustable trigger, a real barrel, a real receiver, and good quality control. I have been using the Savage and leaving the Marlin on my bedroom floor, which is my gun safe.

Now it’s starting to look like the Marlin works better. It’s still cheaply made, and I had to make a bunch of modifications in order to turn it into a real gun, but it’s very accurate for a .22, and it’s light and handy. Actually, it’s only half a pound lighter than the Savage, but the balance is good.

It’s more pleasant to hunt with. Arggh. There. I said it.

Doesn’t mean I nailed any squirrels yesterday, unfortunately. I got one 50-yard shot, which I took, even though I couldn’t get a good rest. A squirrel’s target area is about 1″ across, and personally, I can’t hold a rifle on an area that small at 50 yards without a decent rest. My shot sailed over the rodent and into a tree trunk.

I got another shot from about 15 feet, and I missed. It’s actually hard to hit small things up close with a scope, unless you’ve practiced. My scope’s axis is 2″ above the rifle’s axis, so I had to guess where the bullet would go. I had a full-body shot at the squirrel, but in order to make it a safe shot, I had to move until all I was able to see was his tiny, evil head. I missed.

Still, I can’t take back what I said. The Marlin appears to be a serious squirrel machine.

I plan to buy used golf balls and shoot them from various distances to find out how to hold over when shooting squirrels up close. I may also start taking a long bipod into the woods for distant shots. It’s a lot of aggravation, but so is missing squirrels.

I have a swinging metal target which has one gong the size of a squirrel’s head. I’ll be practicing with it today or tomorrow. Im also going to see if I can put lower rings on the scope to make it closer to the rifle’s bore and reduce error at short distances.

Do I owe Marlin an apology? Well, Marlin is dead, and the dead don’t have feelings. Ruger just bought Marlin from Remington, which is a bankrupt company. Also, I was right about the Marlin’s quality and design problems. Can’t take those criticisms back. It looks like it’s an inferior gun which works extremely well once the right person modifies it. Nicest thing I’m willing to say.

The Savage is made better, but it feels less handy. I think I’ll get a second Bugbuster for it. After that, maybe I’ll want to use it again.

If the Marlin continues shooting sub-MOA at 50 yards, and the Savage doesn’t catch up, I’ll forget I ever thought about the Savage. It could happen. Rimfire ammo is not great, but the shorter your distances are, the less the ammo matters, and 50 yards is (“are”?) a short distance. Ammo problems that cause serious deviations mean less at 50, and believe it or not, it’s not a simple error-to-distance ratio. A gun that shoots sub-MOA at 50 may shoot much worse at 100. You can’t just assume a gun that shoots x MOA at 50 will shoot 2x at 100.

More likely than not, my next 50 yard groups will open up to about an inch. Still good, but not squirrel-head good.

Guess I better get moving. Those gongs aren’t going to shoot themselves.