Marlin 60 catastrophic failure

[chaos]

My son and his buddy were down at the tank behind the house shooting some 15 year old Remington thunderbolts when the gun came apart.

They found the casing. I am thinking that she fired out of battery. No one was injured.

What are your thoughts of cause? Gun was nearly new, freshly cleaned...still had tag on trigger guard

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s132/colbcheese/Andrewgunandbullet004_zps128ba679.jpg (http://s151.photobucket.com/user/colbcheese/media/Andrewgunandbullet004_zps128ba679.jpg.html)

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s132/colbcheese/Andrewgunandbullet024_zps631d0d26.jpg (http://s151.photobucket.com/user/colbcheese/media/Andrewgunandbullet024_zps631d0d26.jpg.html)

[HangFireW8]

From the picture, I would not call that a catastrophic failure.

Causes might include-

Firing pin jammed forward.
Defective ammo- Extra-thin rim caused feed-initiated detonation, also contributing to the blowout.

I bet after a good cleaning, the gun could be just fine.

Some good wood glue and some clamps and you might be able to put that wood back in service.

HF

[shooterg]

Was that the first shot ?

[nagantguy]

thank god no one was hurt or worse! and be happy it wasn't a high dollar rifle. I have had lots of squibs and ftf's with the Remington rim fire ammo but never anything like this. WOW.

[Vopie]

Marlin m-60's are noted for this, firing out of battery. It has happened to me and I have seen a number come into the shop with the same problem.

[jmort]

"Gun was nearly new"

I have two older Marlin 22s which work real good. If this is newer production there may be issue with internal finish.

[chaos]

Failure happened about halfway through the box. A freshly opened brick of ammo. I gave it to the boys out of my stash. Price tag on Brick of $8.99, so I've had it a while.

[chaos]

It's a later model gun that he's had for about 4 years. He just had never shot it much. I'm going to pull it down after dinner. I'd bet that the firing pin theory is spot on

[fouronesix]

Most certainly fired out of battery. The cause- that's the $64k question.

[wellfedirishman]

Looks like there may have been a crack or weakness in the wood grain too. There is no visible mechanical damage to the gun. I have had a few OOBs in various 22lr guns with Federal ammo (when you shoot many 10Ks of rounds you get one occasionally) and none was ever more than a pop/smoke and little flash.

The only OOB that was scary was a 9mm which put some brass fragments in my skin.

[tacklebury]

Marlin m-60's are noted for this, firing out of battery. It has happened to me and I have seen a number come into the shop with the same problem.

Welcome aboard, I guess. I see this is your first post after being a member for a year and a half?

I've shot many of these and never had an issue nor heard of this being an issue with them myself. I still use one as my primary squirrel/rabbit rifle, but I refuse to use Remington rimfire ammo as I've had many squibs, overpressure loads etc. and it's dirty as all get out. Did you check to make sure the boys hadn't let the muzzle get down into the dirt also? The last time I saw a stock separate like that was when a semi-auto was put barrel first and there was a bore obstruction.

[unknwn]

I had the same ammo failure (unknwn brand) in the same model rifle ('78 vintage) which came into my collection 3rd hand.
The OBD occurred before I'd taken the time for a major cleaning and inspection the same day I brought it home. My 60's stock didn't fall apart (even though it has an as yet un-repaired wooden stock defect), and the whole experience was enough to re-convince me of the no-excuses need for eye protection -ALWAYS!-.
Once I cleaned-cleaned-cleaned, and inspected the gun, and sorted all of my loose ammo into piles that would and would-NOT chamber and fall-out of this particular chamber under it's own weight, I think I might have overcome the likelyhood of a reoccurence.
The most evident of problems IMHO is the sorting out ammo that won't chamber in the gun without abnormal or unusual assistance.
I have also decided that it is time to aquire a set of the PacoKelly rimfire ammunition tools to accompany my .22 ammo and various rimfire firearms.

[KCSO]

I would assume you didn't strip and clean the gun before using it? I have found that sometimes from the factory there is a heavier grease in the bolt that can cause the firing pin to stick. The gun can be fixed and even a new stock souldn't be too bad because a lot of the wood stocks are replaced with TACTICAL stocks and the wood ones put in the closet.

[DeanWinchester]

Agree, fired out of battery. I had a Walther bullpup fire out of battery. Sent me to the ER. Tis was before the first recall. Thank God it wasn't a 308!

[country gent]

Tight headspace thick rim can cause slam fires also. A sticking firing pin from old oil grease also a rim getting hit un square by the bolt face due to feeding issues. The actual rifle probably was damaged but will be hard to have any "confidence" in it again either

[jh45gun]

I would contact Marlin I had a barrel on a H&R pistol one time blow up while shooting at the range. Sent the gun back to them with the suspect ammo box which they requested. They re-barreled and sent back to me. The good thing is no one got hurt. The other good thing is they cannot accuse you of reloads since it is a rim fire gun.

[2152hq]

Are you sure one didn't go off in the magazine/feed throat. All the burned powder discoloration on the broken stock wood is down inside in that area.
The forward section of the action side plate(s) look discolored/burned too.

[Char-Gar]

I have my Clark Custom Ruger MKII have a head separation. My off side thumb took some brass particles and got scorched, but no serious damage.

Tight 22 rf chambers can get a build up of fouling near the barrel throat that will impede chambering and the firearm can fire out of battery depending on the design. Make certain all autoloading 22rf have their chamber cleaned on a regular basis.

Of course, you can't discount crappy ammo.

[tomme boy]

It did not fire out of battery. The case head failed. I failed right where the case is unsupported. The head of a 22rf sticks out of the barrel.

Take pics of the ammo, the lot # and the gun and send them to Remington. DO NOT THROW the ammo away. Remington will replace the gun!

[Smoke4320]

"Take pics of the ammo, the lot # and the gun and send them to Remington. DO NOT THROW the ammo away. Remington will replace the gun! "

Now that remington and marlin are owned by the same company replacement will be even easier

[Junior1942]

I shoot 22 rimfire, from a M60, across my Chrony to check the sensors before shooting higher value centerfire rounds across it. Those Remington Thunderbolt rounds read from 850 fps to 1159 fps. I'm betting a bullet didn't make it out of the barrel and the boys fired another round.

[tomme boy]

Nope! This is the typical 22rf case head failure.

[HangFireW8]

Nope! This is the typical 22rf case head failure.

I've had 22LR rim failures both in and out of battery. In all cases the rim blew out.

The rim is what usually fails on 22LR, since it is a weak spot by design, both thin and folded. But that fact does not mean that it is necessarily an ammo failure. If it fails when fully in battery, yes, it is an ammo failure. If it is discharged out of battery, the premature discharge may be the ammo's fault (over sensitive), or the gun (sticky firing pin, obstructed bore, sticky magazine, etc.)

I'm all happy for you that you're so sure of yourself, but when I look at the picture, it looks just like the brass from an old Stevens Favorite I had growing up that had just a little bit of extra headspace. It would regularly blow rims, from any brand or any type. All that ammo wasn't bad. It was the gun.

HF

[tomme boy]

Thats fine. But if it was an out of battery discharge, the case would be expanded somewhere else except just the case head tearing apart. Remington is the worst junk ammo made in 22rf. I have seen every type fail. But Remington just has more bad ammo than everyone else.

[Thin Man]

Your photo of the ruptured case reminded me of the Savage 63 (22 magnum) bolt action I owned about 40 years ago. That rifle had a generous relief cut to allow the extractor to do its work, so big that it created an unsupported chamber. Before I could fire 2 boxes of ammo in that rifle a case ruptured at the extractor cut. The extractor disappeared, but there was no other damage to the rifle. My ruptured case looked very much like yours. I replaced the extractor and got less than 100 rounds through the rifle and all the above happened again. When I got the second replacement extractor in place, I sold off the rifle and never looked back.
Thin Man

[Curlymaple42]

If you glue that stock back together, use epoxy. Wood glee wood probably work fine, but epoxy is better.

[ReloaderFred]

I had the same thing happen with a Remington 597 and Remington .22 ammunition. I contacted Remington and they sent a box and return label for the gun and case. They replaced the gun with no hassle.

Contact them and they'll take care of it.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[popper]

Rim blow out. Do like reloaderfred says & get a syn. stock for the next time. That thunderbolt stuff is junk.