Benchrest Rifle with a Marlin action

Bill Wynne

Bill Wynne

Active member
At our 50/50 shoot Saturday one of our shooters that is always experimenting brought a rifle with a Marlin bolt action. He had used a Shillin barrel and a benchrest stock. The thing shot fairly good but with with winds we had there could be no good test.

Could it be that the accuracy is in the barrel and the action just doesn't have that much to do with it?

Concho Bill
 
"Could it be that the accuracy is in the barrel and the action just doesn't have that much to do with it?"

Hmmm when you think about it why wouldn't any action not work if it did it's job.

Consistent bolt locking, ignition, stout enough so the barrel isn't bouncing around, holding everything in place. Looks to me that any action would work if it met the above.

Gene Begg's program will be real interesting if his rifles can compete for it kinda throws out the bedding of the action and the vibration control of such. I'm no gunsmith but that's how I see it at least.

Les
 
I have thought about the same thing. But when i really look at my marlin actions, as the bolt is turned the back end moves from side to side, the inside finish is horribly rough and scars the bolt. Not exactly optimal for accuracy. Im sure all that your seeing is barrel accuracy.
 
Yes and no

Folks begin with actions they have and then change to be competitive. I'm not at all saying that a Marlin can't win the next nationals but the game has gravitated to Halls, Turbos, pick your favorite,etc..for a reason.

Actually, the Suhl rifle, with its inherent accuracy, defies general concepts concerning fit and finish.
 
Let me explain further. This man has a metal lathe and has made several 22 benchrest rifles. I have seen him with a turbo and a 40X that he has fixed up. The guy does good work.

He had the old Marlin and he had the benchrest stock. He figures that he can fit the barrel in another action if the marlin doesn't work out.

He has kept his options open. If this thing works out we will let you know.

Concho Bill
 
isn't the bolt handle the locking lug on a marlin just like on savage boltaction rimfires? that could be a problem. even the suhl's(that shoot great by the way) have a locking lug besides the bolt handle on them.
 
mr. nobody said:
isn't the bolt handle the locking lug on a marlin just like on savage boltaction rimfires? that could be a problem. even the suhl's(that shoot great by the way) have a locking lug besides the bolt handle on them.
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There's that and there's a couple other problems. The bolt is a two-peice and there isn't much of a way to control the space between the two parts while you cycle the bolt. I'm thinking about shims for this. Another is the trigger. Nobody makes a 2 oz. trigger for a Marlin. The lowest I can get mine is around 1 lb. Any lower and it gets unsafe.

I'm kind of doing the same thing this guy is. Actually, the exact same. I've got my rifle set up with a Green Mountain barrel, Rifle Basix trigger, Tasco 36x scope, and a handmade benchrest stock with a 1-peice aluminum bedding block. I use custom Protektor front and rear bags that Dave Dohrmann worked on.

DSCN1541.jpg


The rifle shoots, just inconsistently. I'll admit to having to iron out some shooting problems from my side of the rifle, however I think with more practice and a better bedding job, I'll be able to get the rifle under control.

I use the same barreled action in several stocks for the sake of utility. If it shoots in one, it shoots in the others. Aside from the benchrest stock, I've got a silhouette, re-worked synthetic, and walnut thumbhole stock for the rifle.

The way I see it, it's just going to make the day that Jerry Stiller releases a repeating version of his 25x better.
 
i remeber seeing the post about the rifle on here earlier. great looking stock by the way. why a green mountain barrel? is it that you were saving money for college or something? my first after market barrel was a green mountain barrel. for the money hey are good, but for a br rifle i would go with a benchmark,shilen, or lilja barrel in a rimfire over the green mountain. if it was budget related i can understand entirerly. i have had to settle for less objects before in the past because of budget limits myself.
 
mr. nobody said:
i remeber seeing the post about the rifle on here earlier. great looking stock by the way. why a green mountain barrel? is it that you were saving money for college or something? my first after market barrel was a green mountain barrel. for the money hey are good, but for a br rifle i would go with a benchmark,shilen, or lilja barrel in a rimfire over the green mountain. if it was budget related i can understand entirerly. i have had to settle for less objects before in the past because of budget limits myself.
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Yeah... it was entirely budget reasons. I don't say it too often but I'm a sophomore in college. The reason I tried to make the stock a good one is to try and overcome some of the deficiencies with that rifle. I completely understand why it's a waste of time to mess around with cheap equipment and you can call what I'm doing now simply learning how to shoot well until I can invest in something good. I do think I lucked out with the GM barrel, however. It's better than I expected, but I don't think it holds anything to a premium quality barrel. It is a heck of an improvement over the Marlin factory barrel (and chamber) though.

For the time being, I've got tuition and living costs that take an obvious priority to shooting. I pay for ammunition and range costs with whatever money I can get on the side. I have found out, however, that thinking and imagining doesn't cost me anything.

Back on topic, I wouldn't do it again. I would buy a rifle that makes a better platform for a benchrest rifle. While what I've got is good for an all-around .22 with different stocks, at the end of the day my rifle is still a weak attempt at a competitive benchrest rifle.
 
Kato,

You are spending your money for the right things. I have assembled a respectable shell collection over the years. It started because collecting shells that many people are willing to give to you is a lot cheeper than collecting guns.

Concho Bill
 
yes don't give up. i started about the same way with a 10/22 then a m77/22. i have a savage that i had the barrel set back on and it shoots well, but the suhl and hall with the lilja barrel(they shoot much better than i can by the way) are simply unbelievable compaired to the others. believe me i understand doing things on a budget. my budget has just expanded a little bit more in the past few years. after you get out of school you will find your budget will expand as well after you get a great job( and i hope you do. by the way if you are going to a liberial college don't allow them to brain wash you!!!!) don't give up. you very well could be the kathy of our generation. good luck and happy shooting.
 
There could be a viable discussion as to how to improve the shooting ability of the common bolt-action sporter .22 (Marlin 925, Savage MKII, etc) while remaining on a sensible budget. Best route would be trying to fix the greatest errors first (Re-barreling, improving stock, improving trigger) and then moving to the secondary problems (Bolt lock-up, squaring action face, ignition, timing issues). I've still got a couple of things that I'd like to try with my rifle, only problem is that I don't want to invest too much in a rifle that is only an experiment. I will, however, have a small work area in the house I'll be living in next year so I can continue trying things (I'll probably spend most of that time working on a new stock design and a new-ish bedding method. I want to bypass action screws while keeping the barrel free-floating and not have a permanent glue-in).

This is why I love forums like this one... it's an invaluable resource for all of us.

Bill, what sort of trigger did this guy have? I'm still shooting with one that's around 16 oz. and would not mind to drop it down some :p.

Mr. Nobody, I'm attending the University of Minnesota's business school. While the U of M is full of students and professors with rather questionable political and moral beliefs and motives, you can be assured that I'm not one of them. I like to think my head is in the right place.
 
katokoch said:
This is why I love forums like this one... it's an invaluable resource for all of us.

Bill, what sort of trigger did this guy have? I'm still shooting with one that's around 16 oz. and would not mind to drop it down some :p.
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Kato,

The trigger is a factory trigger that he worked over quite a bit. One thing that he did that you do not see everyday is that he built an oversized trigger guard so he can place his finger at the end of the trigger and gain mechanical advantage.

If this thing works out well, I am sure that he can tell you all about it himself.

I envy you at this time in your life. Learn all you can keep your feet on the ground.

Concho Bill
TCU School of Business, Class of '62:)
 
Bill,

Is there any way you could get me in contact with him?

Thanks
-Evan Koch
 
With my two-piece Rem 540-series action, I found that by setting the Lilja barrel back to minimize headspace and locking tightly on the shell rim, the rifle shot much better. It's actually fairly competitive, keeping groups in the .28 range.

It really doesn't have any right to shoot that tight when you see how floppy that old action is when working the bolt, but man it locks up really tight on a round.

Picher
 
have you gave any thaught to making a stock with a clamp to hold the action into the stock instead of bedding bolts or glue? i'll try to find a picture of what i'm thinking of. the stock will have a medal base and the top will go over the action and bolt into the bottom base. i think most people mount the scope to the to clamp as well. it's just a ideal ya know.
 
mr. nobody said:
have you gave any thaught to making a stock with a clamp to hold the action into the stock instead of bedding bolts or glue? i'll try to find a picture of what i'm thinking of. the stock will have a medal base and the top will go over the action and bolt into the bottom base. i think most people mount the scope to the to clamp as well. it's just a ideal ya know.
Click to expand...

That's what I've been thinking up for awhile... I think it would work with a slim, cylindrical-recievered .22 anyways. The problems I can imagine with this solution would be weight and poor alignment with the scope bases as the clamps are torqued down. If I had a mill, I would give it a shot.
 
george in KY said:
barrel block maybe ?
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Well, has anyone really tried a reciever clamp? A barrel block would be simple to do (mainly because people have obviously done them before) but I think especially with rimfires, having a bedding system that takes all the stress off the action and leaves the barrel perfectly free-floated would basically improve the standard glass/pillarbedding while making the barrel as tune-able as any other. The real question I guess is if anyone has tried to put a muzzle tuner on a rifle bedded with a barrel block- if it is successful at all.

The reason I'm thinking about a reciever bedding block/clamp is because of inconsistencies in how torqued action screws are and how they might stress the underside of the action. I realize that the screws are going into a big thick peice of steel, but at the same time the screws are simply pulling the underside of the action into bedding material against the screw heads. Having a cylindrical clamp on a cylindrical action would hold down the action with uniform pressure across a much larger surface than the screws. Imagine the thing like a big wide scope ring clamped down onto the reciever body.

Keep the lower half permanently bedded into the stock with a recoil lug positioned at the front to transfer recoil energy into the stock, and with the rear end of the block supporting the tang- this would prevent the action from shifting at all within the clamps under recoil. Keep the top half one peice- like a one-peice scope mount with straps that clamp down onto the lower half. I would keep the top half one-peice to ensure that (integral?) scope mounts are perfectly aligned, even while it's being clamped down.

I was kind of thinking too about problems with scope tubes and rings/mounts heating up and causing stress problems, and maybe having thicker, bigger integral aluminum mounts that are part of a clamp that spans across the top of a reciever with aluminum rings could help solve this problem.

Then again, I could be creating solutions to problems that don't exist.

I'll make up a drawing later tonight.
 
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I have been reading this post with interest. I have a Marlin bench rest rifle in my gun safe- tomorrow I will get it out and find out what model it is. I was hoping to someday play around with re barreling it and try to make it shoot. The stock that came with the gun appears to be a bench rest style and may be made of nylon. Blue in color. I suppose this kind of rifle is ok to play around with to try to learn something about how it shoots but I have never had any interest in trying to shoot compitition with it. garrisone.
 
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