How to Destroy Your Marlin 60 (By removing its barrel)

[Miso Beno]

Important Notes:
ALWAYS clear your weapon before doing any work on it and make sure it is pointed in a safe direction. Use common sense and be safe with your firearms. ALL work in this article is for informational purposes only. Leave the gun plumbing to a trained gunsmith.

The receiver on Marlin 60 rifles are made out of fairly low grade aluminum and might be completely ruined in the process of removing the barrel. Miso Beno and 230Grain.com are not responsible for you ruining your rifle, or harming yourself by following the instructions in this article. This is merely for instructional purposes so please please please don’t sue us if you blow your fingers off.

All orientation is based on the muzzle pointed away from the user and the sights being on top of the gun.


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Why would you remove the barrel off of a Marlin Model 60? They’re awesome barrels!

I picked up this lovely laser gun for a song and wanted to have a little fun with the barrel on a lathe.

Oh. Okay. So how do I destroy my Marlin/Glenfield Model 60 just like you did?

Field strip your rifle and put your parts where you wont lose them. It’s particularly frustrating when you can’t find those important parts like “screws” when you go to reassemble you rifle.

Now lets identify the parts you’re going to be smacking with a hammer. Locate your barrel pin, magazine tube, magazine tube pin, and the breech face of your barrel (inside of the receiver).


Click for Big

Now you’ll have to find the following tools

1 Punch large enough to drive the barrel pin out of the gun 
1 Punch small enough to drive the magazine tube pin out of the gun
1 wooden dowel long and enough to allow you to pound on the breech face without damaging the receiver
1 ball peen hammer
2 bench blocks. 
Bench vise 
Brass or aluminum vise jaws

I think I found everything, now what?

Through some brilliant deduction I was able to determine that my Marlin 60’s barrel pin was installed from right to left; thus I would have to drive it out from left to right so I would not damage my receiver. Remember to use your bench blocks to support your receiver and barrel while you are driving the pin out. If the pin doesn’t give you any trouble then proceed to the next step. If it does not budge check to make sure you are attempting to drive the pin out from the correct direction.

Now remove the pin holding the magazine tube in place and attempt to remove the magazine tube without damaging it. I’m not sure what the secret handshake Is to get it out but I managed to get mine out by pulling it out away from the receiver.

Place your pins somewhere safe so you do not lose them.

Great! The pins are out, now can we remove the barrel?

You sure can. Put the aluminum or brass jaws on your vise, and gently close down on the receiver with the barrel pin hole in the middle of the jaws and the muzzle pointed towards the floor. I suggest using a piece of heavy duty fabric to protect the finish of the receiver, and clamp down wrist tight. Do not clamp down anywhere on the receiver where there is no internal support or you will crush it and render your firearm useless.

Take the wooden dowel and place it on the breech face and start hitting the end of the dowel that is free with your hammer. Slowly increase your hitting force until you see the barrel moving, when the barrel gets close to coming out of the receiver attempt to remove it with your hands. Eventually the barrel will come out with hand pressure and your 22LR will be completely ruined.



OH GOD SPLINES.

[Miso Beno]

Guess what I've been doing!

[Miso Beno]

Great now Ive done what I needed to do to my Marlin 60 and I think my receiver is still good. Now how do I put that damned barrel back on the gun?

To reinstall the barrel you're going to need a few more tools:

A medium or large sized dead blow mallet
A a medium or small sized ball peen hammer
A punch that is significantly wider than the pin hole. 
Bandaids

Now that you've gathered all of your tools, you can begin your attempt at mending your broken Marlin. Take your barrel and receiver and press the receiver and barrel together (mating the correct ends of the barrel and receiver) as straight as possible. Once you think the two are pretty straight take your dead blow hammer and give the muzzle a healthy whack. If you're doing it right the barrel should start working its way back onto the receiver. (Remember, you're holding the receiver in your hands. If you cant hand hold the receiver you can rig it up in your vise using some leather or fabric to protect the finish.) Now that the barrel is working its way on you need to watch the barrel pin hole and keep hitting until the barrel pin slot lines up with the barrel pin holes.

As soon as the two line up STOP HITTING YOUR GUNS MUZZLE and set the gun down with the right side (the side with the bolt handle/ejection port) facing up. Remember how I said the barrel pin was originally installed from right to left? Guess what direction you're going to install the pin from.

Right to left... right?

That's correct! Pay attention to which side of the pin is smaller and which side is larger. The larger end should be facing you while the smaller end should be inserted into the pin hole. Take your big punch and your ball peen hammer and slowly pound that pin in place. I suggest using a piece of wood to protect the finish of your gun while you drive the pin in.

Take a punch that is slightly smaller than the barrel pin and give it a few more whacks for good measure then go ahead and reinstall your magazine tube. Reassemble the gun and inspect it for any cracking and make sure your barrel is tight and expresses no movement when you handle it with your hands.

When you finish make sure you fire the gun a few times and inspect the brass for any abnormalities that might indicate that your gun is not headspacing correctly. Always remember to wear the appropriate hearing and eye protection when using firearms. Particularly guns you shouldn't have plumbed in the first place. You should also keep an eye on your barrel pin for the first couple hundred rounds to insure that there is no stress cracking or peening and periodically inspect your brass for abnormalities.

If you have any tips or comments about ruining your own Marlin 60 feel free to post in this thread. Also if you found the post useful post your projects in here as well.

[Clinotus]

Looking good!

[Miso Beno]

Now will you show us how you threaded the muzzle?

First off the threading process requires its own super special tools.

Die Wrench
1/2" 28 Die
1/2" 28 .22 Cal die guide
Cutting oil
Vise
Aluminum or brass jaws designed to hold a barrel or other rod like item.

Take your die guide and thread it onto the die. Be careful the first time you do this because the guide will be very tight. Pay close attention to the threading on the guide so you don't cross thread the entire deal and make your life extra hard.

You're going to want to thread the guide 2/3s of the way into the die (with the guide rod passing through the inside of the die) so it has enough room to cut the starting thread on the muzzle. Then insert the die and die guide into your die wrench and tighten to prevent it from slipping in the wrench.




Now insert the .22 caliber guide rod into the muzzle of your weapon and liberally apply oil to the surface that is going to be threaded. Slowly start turning the wrench occasionally backing off and adding additional oil as you start to feel resistance on the cutter. Watch the depth you are cutting into the barrel because eventually you will hit the end of the guide and you will have to remove it from the cutter.

After you remove the guide from the die clean the threads off and apply more oil before carefully rethreading the die. Be extremely careful or you might cross thread and ruin the muzzle of your gun. Once you have the guide back on the threads and you are certain that you are not cross threading the entire assembly resume cutting as you did before until you reach the end of your cutting area.



Now all that's left is to clean the threads, apply whatever finishing technique you intend on using, recrown the barrel and attach the muzzle device of your choice to the end of the barrel.

Golly that seems like its kind of risky! I bet its really easy to screw it up.
Hell yes its easy to cock up. On this project I found out I had measured the length that the threaded area of the barrel would need to be and I ended up cutting too far into the barrel so now I have to use extra spacers to get my preferred muzzle device on the barrel. I also managed to damage my crown with the centering tool so I will have to pay a visit to my favorite local gun smith for a recrown. Be careful and remember, if you dont know what you're doing, you run a high probability of harming yourself and destroying your property.

[rwadley]

I enjoyed this "how to" and wanted to add a few things.

If you decide to use a wooden dowel rod as a punch, strips of duct tape can be added around the circumference of the ends to prevent splintering.

A empty 22 case can be placed in the chamber to protect it from damage and keep wood out of the barrel.

[Miso Beno]

I enjoyed this "how to" and wanted to add a few things.

If you decide to use a wooden dowel rod as a punch, strips of duct tape can be added around the circumference of the ends to prevent splintering.

A empty 22 case can be placed in the chamber to protect it from damage and keep wood out of the barrel.

Oh that's really clever. I FINALLY performed a function test and the gun shoots, but I didn't cut the crown correctly so I'm gonna have to borrow a 22 cal 17 degree crown cutting tool from my favorite gun plumber.