My Dad's old Marlin model 60
Posted: Sun Nov 03, 2013 4:51 pm
In his later years, my father had a Marlin model 60 autoloading .22 rifle in the closet. I never saw or heard of him shooting it, but you never know - maybe he did.
http://www.marlinfirearms.com/Firearms/ ... ing/60.asp
I used to kind of look down on his Marlin. It wasn't as upgradable as my Ruger 10-22, and I knew for a fact that he hadn't put more than 60 dollars or so into the Marlin, back when he bought it at Wal-Mart.
Then one day when my family and I were visiting my parents on the farm, I decided to use the Marlin model 60 to show some shooting basics to my son, who was ten or so at the time.
Out in the yard, my son took the Marlins accuracy in stride, but I was surprised and impressed. - It was a lot better than any un-altered 10-22 that I had seen. Even with the factory iron sights, I had no trouble popping a grackle that was 50-60 yards away.
Years later my parents passed on, and I ended up with Dad's Marlin. I kept it around but didn't shoot it much until one day when I was taking my Ruger Mk III Hunter pistol to the range to try out a new scope, and I decided to take the rifle along too, just for fun.
I've always prided myself as a handgun shooter and with the 2X Burris scope, the Ruger pistol was doing great, it seemed like I couldn't miss with it. A little later though, it dawned on me that my son, shooting the Marlin model 60 with factory open sights, was doing every bit as good as I was.
I ended up buying a scope for the Marlin a few months ago, a Leupold 2-7x28 that cost four times as much as the rifle did. - But the Marlin showed that the good glass was not wasted on it at the range. It was, and is phenomenally accurate.
Many times over the years, I have thought about buying a heavy-barreled .22lr bolt gun for really serious paper-punching, but now when I think about that, I look at my Dad's old Marlin model 60 and think about how I would feel if the new target gun couldn't out-shoot the Marlin, which I now consider to be a very real possibility.
I guess it's kind of ruined me for the heavy-barreled .22lr bolt gun that I've always dreamed of. - I have had a nice 1" 10x Unertl scope hoarded up for a while in anticipation of that target bolt gun, but today I found myself taking digital pictures of the Unertl, and getting shipping materials together in anticipation of selling the thing.
Now I'm thinking that my Dad's old model 60 with the Leupold scope is all the .22 rifle that I will ever need. - It's funny how my opinion of that rifle has changed, over the years.
I used to scoff at it but looking back now, I realize just how dumb that was.
http://www.marlinfirearms.com/Firearms/ ... ing/60.asp
I used to kind of look down on his Marlin. It wasn't as upgradable as my Ruger 10-22, and I knew for a fact that he hadn't put more than 60 dollars or so into the Marlin, back when he bought it at Wal-Mart.
Then one day when my family and I were visiting my parents on the farm, I decided to use the Marlin model 60 to show some shooting basics to my son, who was ten or so at the time.
Out in the yard, my son took the Marlins accuracy in stride, but I was surprised and impressed. - It was a lot better than any un-altered 10-22 that I had seen. Even with the factory iron sights, I had no trouble popping a grackle that was 50-60 yards away.
Years later my parents passed on, and I ended up with Dad's Marlin. I kept it around but didn't shoot it much until one day when I was taking my Ruger Mk III Hunter pistol to the range to try out a new scope, and I decided to take the rifle along too, just for fun.
I've always prided myself as a handgun shooter and with the 2X Burris scope, the Ruger pistol was doing great, it seemed like I couldn't miss with it. A little later though, it dawned on me that my son, shooting the Marlin model 60 with factory open sights, was doing every bit as good as I was.
I ended up buying a scope for the Marlin a few months ago, a Leupold 2-7x28 that cost four times as much as the rifle did. - But the Marlin showed that the good glass was not wasted on it at the range. It was, and is phenomenally accurate.
Many times over the years, I have thought about buying a heavy-barreled .22lr bolt gun for really serious paper-punching, but now when I think about that, I look at my Dad's old Marlin model 60 and think about how I would feel if the new target gun couldn't out-shoot the Marlin, which I now consider to be a very real possibility.
I guess it's kind of ruined me for the heavy-barreled .22lr bolt gun that I've always dreamed of. - I have had a nice 1" 10x Unertl scope hoarded up for a while in anticipation of that target bolt gun, but today I found myself taking digital pictures of the Unertl, and getting shipping materials together in anticipation of selling the thing.
Now I'm thinking that my Dad's old model 60 with the Leupold scope is all the .22 rifle that I will ever need. - It's funny how my opinion of that rifle has changed, over the years.
I used to scoff at it but looking back now, I realize just how dumb that was.