Marlin XT-22 with tube magazine is not accurate

T

TruthTellers

New member
I bought a stainless Marlin XT-22 with tubular magazine a few years ago and have been putting it through some accuracy tests the past few years. I finally put it head to head with a Mossberg 702 Plinkster I also own and between the two, the Mossberg grouped better with most every ammo I tried. The sole exception being CCI Quiet, which doesn't work in autoloaders and also happened to group the best with the Marlin.

So, if the only ammo that shoots extremely good in the XT-22 is CCI Quiet, I can't accept that.

Anybody want to try a guess as to why this XT-22 of mine can't shoot less than 2 inch groups at 25 yards? I'm thinking it has to do with the tube magazine itself. It attaches to the barrel and I'm thinking, unlike with the box magazine XT-22's, that it's throwing off the accuracy.

Or could is just be this particular rifle I have sucks?
 
Check the action screw torque.

Check the stock for pressure points on the barrel.

Check the barrel, to see if it's installed properly in the receiver. I've seen more than one with the barrel loose in the receiver (happens on other brands, too).
 
22 rimfire rifles are almost always picky about the ammo used. My Remington does well with the Remington standard velocity ammo and the CCI high velocity ammo. It will not group with the Winchester ammo and the Federal ammo is somewhere in the middle. Remington high velocity accuracy is variable. It sometimes shoots to 1.5 inches at 100 yards but other times it doesn't group at all well.
I have purposely stayed away from the high end target ammo because it will not hold a decent point blank range from 25 to 100 yards. That would require me to adjust my scope during competition and I avoid that.
 
I picked up a crown dressing tool on eBay that is used with a drill. It came with a small amount of fine grit. I did a careful inspection of all my rifles and did a bit of clean up on those crowns that I thought might need it. Maybe just peace of mind more than anything else but I believe it helped a Steven Favorite single shot 22 lr. My other 22 is a CZ 455 that my daughter used to compete in 16 4-H matches. Pretty decent gun, she won the high point/high score 3 years in a row using the ammo they supply.
 
The crown looks fine to me, but it's a bit different than other crowns I've seen. I will post a picture of it later today.
Click to expand...
Is it that nasty cone-shaped crown that Marlin has been slowing spreading across their small caliber rifles?... (So far, I've seen the cone on .270s, .243s, 7mm-08s, .223s, and a few rimfire .22s. [Centerfires being the discontinued X7 model line.])

I haven't seen a single one that'll shoot decently.


Edit:
Found my photo of a .223 with the 'cone' crown. It looks even worse in person, than in the photo.

attachment.php


That was my rifle. Wouldn't shoot well enough to keep me satisfied (let alone happy), so I sold it. The next owner chopped it to 16.5", crowned it, and had much better luck before going to a 6mm barrel and wildcat chamber.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20150310_800.jpg
    IMG_20150310_800.jpg
    82.4 KB · Views: 1,364
Last edited:
Maybe it is just a lemon of a rifle and it should go on down the road? Some firearms have to many problems to be fixed. Maybe Marlin can figure out what is going on?
 
I don't think it is an inherent failure of thetube design. I have the preceding model and it is very accurate. Marlin has been making tube feds for a long time and many are very accurate.

I looked at an XT-22 thinking I might upgrade to the shiny new one. A few seconds and I wasn't interested.
 
Okay, finally here's pics of the Marlin and Mossberg crowns. The Marlin is first pic, Mossberg the second. As you can see the Marlin kind of has a crown, it's very rounded. I'm not sure if that's the way Marlin crowns on microgroove .22 barrels is supposed to be or not.

The Mossberg is a standard looking crown and as I've said previously, it groups better with almost all ammo compared to the Marlin.

Marlin.jpg


Mossberg.jpg
 
Last edited:
In the Marlin crown picture there appears to be reamer marks in the bore. Perhaps that could be the reason for the poor accuracy.
 
I bought it 3 years ago, will Marlin still cover it?
Click to expand...
They should.

Call them. Explain that it won't shoot worth a crap, and that you noticed nasty machine marks in the bore.
They'll probably be willing to take a look at it.
 
I called Marlin today and they started the process. The thing is in the PDF they emailed me it looks like they want to send it to some FFL in Michigan, which makes no sense it's not going straight back to Marlin.

The service rep told me some of the instructions in the PDF won't be accurate, so this is already looking odd to me. UPS is supposed to pick up the box and put a label on it, so I'm going to want to see that label and see what the destination is before I let it leave my possession.

Anybody else ever have to send something back to Marlin? Was your experience similar to mine?
 
I got the rifle back today excited that it was fixed.

Then I took it out of the box and saw that the chatter in the bore is exactly the same and nothing has been fixed. I'm calling Marlin tomorrow to find out what the situation is, but right now, I am not happy that I've paid for a .22 rifle that's half as accurate as other .22's worth half the price and Marlin hasn't fixed it.

At what point do I request a full refund?
 
No, but I will to see if there's an improvement.

But given that the barrel and chatter in the bore hasn't changed, I don't have high hopes.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top