Hi all.

My first rifle was a stainless / green laminate Marlin Model 60 I received as a kid for Christmas one year from my parents. So it's going on 25-30ish years of use.

When reinstalling the recoil spring a while back, the spring bent a bit. It worked for a little while. Then it started firing one round and jamming. IIRC, it was a failure to eject and not a failure to feed.

Thinking of the simplest solution, I cleaned the rifle and it continued to do the same thing.

Thinking of the second simplest solution, I purchased a new recoil spring. It was longer than the old spring, but I installed it to see if it would help. Now it will not even fire the first round.


Thoughts and possible / alternative solutions?

(My first thought is that the problem might not have been the recoil spring. Or, perhaps, I should clip the new one to the original spring's length.)

I bet the issue is with the extractor and not this linked spring.
Will your rifle cycle cci mini mags or something higher quality than bulk ammo?

I have a model 60 I took apart and tuned the extractor, my gun did the same as yours, mine runs 100% now
The extractor claw was not engaging the rim at all on mine, some stone work and a light tap of a hammer got mine running.

I would think the recoil spring and firing the first round are not even related. The new recoil spring might be longer because the old one was compressed and worn out. Are you getting a primer strike when you attempt to fire the first round? Is it a light strike? I would check that first, and remove the firing pin and give the whole bolt/firing pin assembly a good cleaning, then reassemble and see what you get.

I've done all that. I mentioned the problem is not failure to fire. The problem is failure to eject. So it fires the first round just fine.

I was wondering whether the bent recoil spring might be catching on something or itself, so it seemed an easy possible fix.

I also wondered whether the length of the spring was an issue of the old spring being compressed.

I've been thinking the same, too, about the extractor. I need to try something a bit hotter / better quality than bulk. So far I've tried regular federal bulk and also the Federal Automatch.

Thanks for the suggestion.

So, this is a typo and should read "now it will not even eject the first round? "

From what is written by the OP, it had a FTE problem then the spring was replaced and now it will not fire although it DOES NOT have a failure to fire problem.

Cleaning the rifle is not the same as actually taking the firing pin out of the bolt and cleaning the passages, etc. Make sure you do that (completely disassemble the bolt), check the firing pin for rounded leading edge and spring for binding...same with extractor. They can wear the sharp edge down just like on a 10/22. Failure to feed is much more common on a Model 60 than FTE.

With the new, longer spring, I cannot even pull the trigger. So the firing pin does not drop. The old spring still fires the first round just fine, then fails to eject.

Ah, now we are getting somewhere. Is it possible that they sold you the wrong spring? Exactly how much longer is the spring than the original? Is the spring binding up on something? Check for burrs. Is the Bolt moving fully into battery? If you cycle the bolt, will it cycle the ammo through?

I'd have to check tonight on spring length. IIRC, the new spring is an inch or so longer.

The bolt moves fully into battery, and I can cycle ammo through the rifle simply by cycling the bolt.