Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Random Gun Thought

You never hear much anymore of people owning Marlin model 60 22LR autoloaders, yet at one time they were as popular (if not more popular) than the Ruger 10/22. Now it seems all you hear about is the Ruger. Where did all the Model 60 owners go?
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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I own two. Got them for Appleseed. Love them. Cheaper than 10/22s.

8/23/2011 10:31:00 AM
gator said...

I have one.

8/23/2011 01:28:00 PM
Firehand said...

Daughter's first rifle, still has it. The things last forever, they just don't get the publicity of the 10-22 since you can't change out everything on it

8/23/2011 03:35:00 PM
Gunnutmegger said...

Tube-fed magazines used to be the standard for .22s.

In terms of versatility, a tubular magazine has a lot of advantages on paper, especially for rimfires (since the tips of the bullets can't hit the primer of the rounds ahead of them). 12-15 rounds is a respectable capacity. There's no box magazines to lose. The brass tubes are self-lubricating. Most guns will accept shorts, longs and long-rifles interchangeably.

In practice, some difficulties arise with tube-fed designs. Loading is somewhat awkward, and unloading is a pain in the neck. Shooting a lot of shorts can erode the end of the chamber, and let the cases of fired long-rifle ammo expand too much to function reliably.

It has to be easier to make a stock for a tube-fed gun, since the manufacturer is already gouging out the stock lengthwise to make room for the barrel. And the stock of a tube-fed rifle is usually very svelte (no wide 10/22 magazine to accept, and no protruding box magazine to interfere with the shooter's support hand).

I suspect that modern consumers prefer the versatility of interchangeable magazines. And the manufacturers (who make greater % of profit off accessories like magazines than they do off of the actual gun) are probably OK with meeting this preference because they can sell extra magazines.

8/23/2011 07:11:00 PM

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