Messin' with my Marlin

This summer I noticed that my Marlin 60 was having a lot of light primer strikes, so I spent a good amount of time fiddling with it. I took it apart and cleaned it, shot it, took it apart and cleaned it again, shot it some more...and so on. I ended up using a file to sharpen the end of the firing pin a little bit and made sure to shoot it a little wet and that has pretty much taken care of the problem.

However, this weekend, when I was up at the Cheatham TWRA (don't ever go there without full body armor...flag city) I was watching my wife shoot and it started acting up again. I watched very closely and discovered that the problem was that the bolt was not closing completely after each shot, which meant the firing pin was just barely touching the cartridge. I sprayed a couple drops of CLP onto the bearing surfaces inside the receiver and it was good to go but I still have an itch that needs scratchin...

I think that a stiffer recoil spring would give the bolt the extra "oomph" that it needs to completely close the breech. The problem being that nobody makes a stiffer recoil spring for a Marlin 60. So the question to you folks is: could I just heat the spring up cherry red and drop it into some water to stiffen it up a bit and take care of the problem?

Hello?

How long have you had it & how many rds??
It just might be time to replace it with a factory spring.
The origanal may be getting weak.

Give that a try & let us know.

Have you tried switching ammo? I have had a number of rimfires-many of which were Marlins- that would just not be reliable with one particular ammo, but 100% with another.

Other than that, I would call Marlin or Brownells if they have them and order a new spring.

I've probably put about 1000rds through it. I know I can get a new spring, but there's no guarantee it will be stiffer and I don't want to pay $6 plus another $6 shipping for a half ounce piece of steel. Also, I'm trying to stay under the radar with my gun related purchases, I just bought a case for my AR, so I gotta tread lightly on the credit card.

I heard that Marlin will sometimes send free parts, so I'll call them, but I wonder if there are any metallurgists or whatever out there that know about increasing spring coefficients by simple tempering techniques.

I'd try some Miltec1 on it. Apply the Miltec1 like you would oil and then blow it with a hair dryer, do that three times. Then put it back together try it.

I was discussing that very gun with a friend the other day, and he was telling me the experiences he's had with them is that they have that very problem. Fix A is tear the entire gun down, clean thoroughly, and it might fix it. It sounds like you already did that, so plan B is replace the springs. There's a good chance that a replacement factory spring will fix the problem, and while it may not be super stiff, it'll likely be stiffer than the one you have with 1000 rounds through it. Plan C is, as with all semi autos, use plenty of oil. By the way, if you are using federal bulk packs (dunno about the others) I notice that recently that I am getting a TON of light strikes from them in multiple guns that usually don't have a problem with it.

Tried evenly as possible STRETCHING the spring out?

- OS