Need a new recoil spring or buffer? I wonder if the bolt is sluggish and not sending the rounds in correctly? Both are cheap and worth replacing on any used firearm especially if you aren’t the first owner.

 

Both things have been replaced. I bought the gun new in 1984, shot it a few times, and then stuck it in the closet and forgot about it. I pulled it out recently and thought I'd try it again, and I liked it, but soon i had bent the recoil spring and shattered the buffer. Anyway, Numrich has fixed me up with both items and I have a couple of lifter springs on the way. I was told by someone who says they know about such things that the lifter is too slow and causing the jams. So I ordered the spring. They're cheap enough to try. The gun has been used so little it's a shame, but it has been collecting dust for over 30 years. We'll see if the spring works when they get here this coming week.

 

I’ve had over a dozen Model 60’s, only 2-3 have had issues. It’s only ever been cleaning for mine. They have mostly ended up with the grandkids, nieces or nephews.

But I’m thinking your advice was spot on. I’ve never had a 60 choke on any LR ammo, and judging by the dents, your bolt is moving strong and fast. My first thought was lifter is too slow. Assuming you’ve cleaned and lubed when you replaced the buffer and spring, the lifter spring is the next item to look at.

Let us know if your fix works!👍

 

Is it a particular ammo it does this with. You say you can load it, and manually cycle. Sounds like the bolt isn’t staying back long enough, or going back far enough to let it eject/feed.

 

I have had this very thing happen with a 10/22 , I don't have a Marlin 60 but the condition has occured in several semi autos both rifles and pistols,it can be a combination of factors, weak springs or weak ammo.
Manually cycling does not equate to firing. hope one of us finds the problem and a solution.

 

I agree with JT, what ammo are you using?

 

Federal Automatch, Winchester white box, CCI standard, Armscor. Cheap stuff.

 

Looks to me like the classic two-piece feed throat splitting issue. I had a few older model 60s over the years and the two piece block splits apart ever so slightly causing this exact problem. Check to see if you have that two piece throat, if you do it probably will need replacing along possibly with the bolt.. Nowadays, it might be cost prohibitive to get a one piece retrofit setup for it. If your feed block looks like the one on the right, I’ll bet that’s your problem. There are lots of threads about this issue on RFC (where I got this picture) that go into detail on this issue.

 

The throat does appear to be made of two pieces, but I don't think there is any type of cracking or splitting yet.

 

Good morning, have you taken apart the magazine tube plunger assembly and cleaned it too? I've had a couple of tube magazines fed automatic rifles that have benefited from having this service performed. E.

 

Good idea. I have checked it but I have not taken it apart. I looked at it after you suggested it and I'm guessing the pin at the muzzle end would need to be tapped out to get it apart? I did rub just a bit of lube on outside of the feedbtube and it seems to slide in and out ok. The spring in there has just enough pressure to push the cartridges along. It feels ok, but maybe it's weak too? I don't know.

 

Those pins can be tricky to remove. Not impossible, but you can get into a mess. I’d recommend depressing the plunger, and spraying it clean. I’ve also just ran an oiled swab up in there to clean, and lube.
If you can cycle it manually with no issues then it sounds like a speed/timing issue. They work fine with cci standard. If you have any mini mags then try some.

 

I just watched a YouTube video

about how to do it, and while I'm sure I can do it, I don't think there's anything wrong with it. If I continue to have problems after a new lifter spring, then maybe I'll take it apart. As is, it seems to be intact, functioning, and reasonably clean. I guess I could put a shot of CLP in there.

Yeah, I do have a box of mini mags. I could test it with those.

 

Now I've gotta know.... keep us posted !!

 

I'll try a new spring and report if it did any good or not.

 

bob, that marking on the brass is the 'classic Rabbit-tooth jam' indicator. In older 60s it is caused by the feed throat either wearing Or the 2-halves separating. The 'weak lifter spring' is less likely to cause this IMO. A more likely issue may be the 'leg' of the lifter spring 'dragging' on the side plate. Arrowdodger addresses this issue at about 8-minutes into this video. He doesn't specifically say it's a cause of 'Rabbit-tooth' but the slow lifter would be one effect of that. His vids should be required watching for anyone 'opening up' a Marlin-60. Same with the mag tube plunger, altho you could run an oiled patch thru as Jive Turkey suggested - it won't hurt unless you put too much oil in there. Speaking of which, 60s prefer to run 'fairly dry'. I just put a dab of silicone grease (PTFE) on the Hammer-Sear Notch and on the 'pivot pins' the hammer and sear run on. And a bit on the bolt itself where it rubs on the receiver. Little , if any, lube anywhere else.
Hoping one of these suggestions will help.

 

bob, that marking on the brass is the 'classic Rabbit-tooth jam' indicator. In older 60s it is caused by the feed throat either wearing Or the 2-halves separating. The 'weak lifter spring' is less likely to cause this IMO. A more likely issue may be the 'leg' of the lifter spring 'dragging' on the side plate. Arrowdodger addresses this issue at about 8-minutes into this video. He doesn't specifically say it's a cause of 'Rabbit-tooth' but the slow lifter would be one effect of that. His vids should be required watching for anyone 'opening up' a Marlin-60. Same with the mag tube plunger, altho you could run an oiled patch thru as Jive Turkey suggested - it won't hurt unless you put too much oil in there. Speaking of which, 60s prefer to run 'fairly dry'. I just put a dab of silicone grease (PTFE) on the Hammer-Sear Notch and on the 'pivot pins' the hammer and sear run on. And a bit on the bolt itself where it rubs on the receiver. Little , if any, lube anywhere else.
Hoping one of these suggestions will help.

Thanks for those vids. I'll try to watch them before doing anything else.

I don't think I had excessive lube in there. I'm pretty stingy with it. In fact, I keep it in a used medical syringe and only put tiny amounts on friction or pivot points. I'm not spraying 5 second bursts of lube inside the ejection port and calling it good.

PS, I posted a couple of photos of the feed throat a few posts back if you want to look. Thanks .

 

And here's another vid with that same problem - Rabbit-tooth jam. He addresses this problem in the first 20-min or so. The rest is also good instructions, tho.

 

Thank you!

 

I am thinking the lifter spring is the problem.

 

Well, Mine was doing the 'rabbit-tooth' and I just filed off about 1/32" off the tip of the lifter 'leg' as Arrowdodger suggested and now it shoots anything.
FWIW, I also run the action 'dry' except for a dab of PTFE lube on the hammer/sear notch and pins. Extra lube just collects dirt IMO.

 

So, my lifter springs came in from Numrich. I took everything apart and put one in, but it didn't seem to fit just right. No matter what, it seemed the anchor side of the spring that sets in the little cutout on the lifter wanted to scratch along the side plate. I figured I needed to cut it back a shade, so I got my ***** and nipped off a tiny bit. Well this squished the wire and made it pointy, so I got out a file to square it up and spent too long trying to do that. Anyway, I never could get the new spring to sit there and operate without rubbing on the plate or coming unhooked from the notch. So then I began to compare the new spring with the old one. I'll be darned if I could see any difference in them except the new one is made of black wire and the old one is silver color. I found another YouTube guy who said he was a gunsmith and has worked on "thousands" of model 60s. He said if the spring is rubbing, to use a Dremel wheel to cut it back. So I did that and everything seemed to be lining up and all was right with the world. I even entertained the idea of how I could shoot it in the backyard without being detected by the neighbors to test my work, but I finally calmed down and waited until today to take it to the range. In the mean time I found another YouTuber who said these kinds of failures are due to using low velocity ammo and to only use high velocity. And another guy who said that straight lead nose bullets cause jams, so I got out some aguila copper coated stuff to try it. Everything cycled fine manually. So I had it all loaded up with 18 rounds of aguila super extra copper coated 1255 fps, ready for sucess, and it did cycle great for 5 shots. And then the jamming began. I haven't taken it apart yet to actually look inside, but once it started jamming I could get only one or two shots after clearing it before it happened again. I did get through all 18, but it wasn't the triumph I had dreamed of. I have no idea what to do next. Maybe tonight I'll crack it open one more time to see what I can see.

 

Thanks, good idea. I'll put a box in my range bag.

 

I shoot Subsonics in both of my Marlin 60's, so that is not the cause of the problem.
Disappointed that the lifter spring didn't solve it. Perhaps file some off the lifter as fasteddie did.

 

I went back and reread. You say it worked fine until after you replaced buffer, and recoil spring. Am I correct on this?
You can cycle it manually without a hitch. I’m thinking the new recoil spring may be too strong not allowing bolt to stay open long enough during actual firing.

 

Which is where Mini-Mags may help until the spring "softens".

 

If it functioned fine before the recoil spring/buffer replacement, then I feel like you have one or two things happening, or a combo of both.

1) The recoil spring, non factory is too strong.
2) Upon reassembly, the ejector spring is bent out of position. This happens when installing the fire control assembly without locking the bolt back first.

I would attempt to straighten that original recoil spring as much as possible and try that first.
There is the "nickel trick" for setting the ejector leg to the proper position. That can be found here on the forum.

 

bob - I just saw your recent post #35 and went back to 'my notes'. I found another possibility for 'fixing' your jams. Basically it's getting the barrel/receiver very 'snug' in the stock. I'll let you read and check it out yourself. I always am careful since I have the plastic trigger-guard that's 'repaired' with epoxy instead of $100 (in Canada) DIP guard. Post #20 claims success and there is a second page-2 as well. Good Luck 😄

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www.rimfirecentral.com

 

I shot it again today with the original recoil spring installed. It jammed on the first shot. I then installed the Numrich spring I had been using, but I clipped the spring to remove 3 coils. This didn't work either. I then took a new Numrich spring and clipped five coils from it and tried it. Again, no joy. I then clipped another five coils from that spring and tried again. This time it almost worked. It would fire and reload without jamming, but when I tried to fire again, I got the click of the firing pin, but no bang. I could cycle the round out by hand and then fire once, reload and again click, but no bang. So, it seems as if I clipped the recoil spring a little too much. I will try again with a spring with 6 coils removed, test, and remove single coils until I find out the magic number of coils to remove to make the gun work.

And Fasteddie01, I did think of how far I had the action screws tightened and I stopped at just snug enough, not tight tight. So far as I can tell, the action is sitting in the stock as it should be, but I might be wrong. I would think the fixing screws wouldn't line up if the action was not in the stock at the correct position. I don't know if it makes any difference, but I did break the stock and glue and screw it back together not so long ago.

 

I also had a 're-set' problem a while ago and that's when I found the 'fix' of forcing the action to the rear of the stock. It was likely only 1-2 mm 'loose' but the action screws allow a bit of slack, so mine (and the fellow in that link) needed to be 'snugged up'. That tiny movement didn't make sense but it seemed to do the trick. Mine has been OK for a couple years now, but this still might not be your solution.

 

Thanks. I'll see if it will move any the next time I'm in there.

 

Annnd a couple more things. 1) MCarbo 'used to have' a 'low-velocity' recoil spring but it's not on their website now. If you call them they may have one laying around. 2) You may be aware of the "Floppy-spring Mod" already but if not, it simply is taking the 'gate-spring' off a PC floppy-disc. You then bend it to replicate the OEM trigger-return-spring. It will take about 1-# off the trigger pull - it's super soft. Polishing the innerds that 'rub each other' and One-coil off the Hammer Spring can get you down around 2# pull, if you wish. All this is described on RFC threads.

 

Yes, I did read that about the trigger/floppy spring trick. I'm sure I have some floppies in a box around here somewhere. I also read that simply stretching the regular trigger spring past it's set point would create a new softer set point taking a bit of pull off the trigger. I did do that and noticed a small difference. I haven't molested the hammer spring. I'm more concerned with getting it to go bang when I want it to right now.

 

I finally learned it's necessary to have the bolt open when attaching the action to the receiver. Four quick shots through an old soup can confirmed I finally had it right. This gun sat in a closet unused for over 40 years and shot ok when I picked it up again until the recoil buffer shattered. Then began my wild goose chase for parts to fix real and non-existent problems. It seems to be working, and now I'm anticipating putting a box or two through it.