[flopps]

All:

I inherited a M60 Golden 50 from my grandfather when he passed away a while back. I've disassembled, cleaned, and reassembled the rifle and did not notice anything out of the ordinary during the process. When I finally got a chance to take the rifle to the range this past weekend, the rifle shot it's first round right on the money and failed to feed the second round. Since I was new to the range, I cleared the rifle and moved on to pistol shooting.

I came home and cleaned the rifle again and reviewed several threads on these boards, but could not find a similar problem. After reassembling the weapon, I put a couple of rounds in and worked the action and got a jam on every round. I took a few pictures to see what was happening, as I was having a hard to seeing what the problem is - here they are:




It looks like the rounds are not feeding properly - either feeding up and to the right or to the right of the chamber. This FTF can happen on any of the rounds loaded in the magazine tube (not necessarily only the first or subsequent rounds loaded).

Does anyone know of a fix for this issue? I'd definitely like to keep this classic family heirloom operational without having to pay half its value to a gunsmith. Thanks in advance for any assistance you can give!

 

[ere]

Welcome,

That's kind of how I ended up here on Marlin Owners. A FTF/FTE model 60 brought me snooping around here. I don't know exactly where to direct you but the info is here. The "nickel" adjustment fixed one of mine and a replacement spring/rod fixed the other.

 

[MDMassey]

This is a common issue with the older models. 2 things can cause it and relpacing both usually cures it... well 3 things but 2 work as one. First the feed throat is a 2 piece design that can split and open up making the bolt slow down as it moves, and also causing a mis-alignment of the round for chambering. The new feed throats are one piece and do not do this. Second is the lifter arm/spring. If the round it not lifted all the way then it will not align correctly. Also if the round it lifted too high (from the feed throat being split) then it wont angle correctly for going into the breech. Numrich had all 3 parts the other day when I ordered them for a "Problem Child" Model 60 I have. I got the lifter, spring, throat, recoil spring and recoil rod for $60 ish to my door. The recoil rod was like $13 but the rest of the parts were pretty cheap.

With the newer style feed throat there are 4 lugs on it. You can either grind the extra lug off or drill a hole in your frame to accept the lug. I would personally just grind the lug off to make it all fit. Also the nylon recoil buffer can cause all sorts of grief if it is broken or hardened with age. Again Numrich usually stocks them and they are the same as the older ones (but better materials). If all else fails... I would gladly buy the rifle from ya... I have a Golden 50 (1972)that I restored last summer and love taking it out shooting. I had one hell of a mess when I bought my Golden 50, but E-bay and some of the guys here helped me get it up and running. If you want to check it out look at my started threads and look for Pawn Shop find. I have pics of what I did to it.

Dom

 

[flopps]

Thanks for both of your replies - Dom, I will look into ordering the parts from Numrich.

I broke down the rifle again after posting and cleaned it once more, then paid some special attention to how the round is fed. By manually operating the bolt on top of the action, when a round is fed to the bolt face, the cartridge lifter flings the round up through the feed throat, where the round reflects off the extractors and ends up missing the bolt face completely or only catches the right side extractor (so that the round ends up pointing up (with the cartridge lifter applying pressure) and to the right of the chamber. If I hold a finger above the bullet portion of the round, the cartridge will sit correctly on the bolt face when the cartridge lifter pushes up.

 

[MDMassey]

The problem with cycling it by hand while apart... Your fingers will push the halves of the feed throat together and keep them from causing the issues you have. Sometimes the round does not engauge both arms of the extractor at the same time but will as the round moves into the chamber. This is not uncommon the 10/22 does the same thing. So long as the round lines up with the breech and the tip goes in you should be good. What you want to look for while the rifle is assembled is the round sliding up the bolt face smoothly and that it gets angled properly to get the tip in the breech. By the looks of your jams the round is being lifted too high which is causing it to move parallel and not angled into the bore like it is supposed to be. The new parts should cure this issue. Also you MUST buy a cartridge lifter with the new feed throat. The old ones are shaped differently and will not work with the new feed throat design. As always the lifter/ejector spring is a good purchase. The new style lifter spring will work just fine. The end is not bent up like the old one is because it is made to lift the LSHO lever as well. This will not be an issue with the old frame.

Dom