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Dry Firing a Marlin Rimfire

12K views 11 replies 7 participants last post by  Bucky 
#1 ·
Guy's to be honest with you I have not fired my Marlin 990 in years. My 990 is a 1979 year production which does not have the last round bolt hold open feature. I've been looking around on the net toward questions of dry firing a Marlin namely the model 60. The 60 seems to be more commonly sold the most.

My understanding is that the model 990 and the model 60 have virtually the same action. The 990 I have has the 18 round tubular magazine with no bolt hold open feature as mentioned. I'm not one for counting how many shots fired and really don't know of anyone else doing that, so that last pull of the trigger then will go "click" with a empty magazine, isn't this a sign of dry firing? Hasn't that last fired cartridge been already ejected ?

My 990 was purchased second hand, you might say back in 1980 or 81, so I have no owners manual to go by as procedure of it's ok to dry fire or it's not ok to dry fire. I have a Ruger 10/22 carbine and the way it's set up the manual clearly says it's ok to dry fire it such as practicing. My understanding is the Ruger has a retaining pin in the bolt that limits the travel of the firing pin that keeps it from slamming into the chamber base when no .22lr round is present. Is the Marlin like or similar to this ?

Thanks for any info.

Tony
 
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#2 ·
I dry fire all my Marlins. There are extremes of people freaking out by dry firing once. Like you say, without the last shot hold open, I wager they get dry fired a lot. Practice away
 
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#3 ·
As I understand, unless your rifle limits pin travel, your pin will hit the barrel beside the chamber. Eventually the pin will dull and you may not get good ignition OR the pin will peen the side of chamber and you may experience loading and extraction problems.

That said, I try to count my shots and rarely succeed.
 
#4 ·
Here are 2 questions...and the answers may help solve this problem and may help avoid damage.
Q: Does someone make duds for dry fire practice in 22LR? Can you make a suitable "last round dud to use as a buffer in the tube? Either of these dry fire shells can save firing pins and chamber mouths from damage.

You might look here: Load it so it is the last round to be chambered.
https://www.amazon.com/Zoom-Action-Proving-Dummy-Rounds/dp/B000AU1TK0
 
#9 ·
On another forum I was reading a similar topic on dry firing the Marlin 60. One guy said it states nothing about dry firing his Model 60 in the owners manual,so he contacted Marlin through email and ask them the question is it ok to dry fire? He said he received no email answer from Marlin.

As mentioned Ruger 10/22 says it's fine to dry fire as in practicing and it states that in their owners manual, I've read it before. I recently bought March 2, 2018 a new CZ 512 .22 WMR Standard model # 2161, in the owners manual on the CZ 512 it states, Do not pointlessly dry fire (without cartridges) the firearm so as to avoid damage to the edges of the cartridge chamber and decreasing service life of the firing pin.

The CZ 512 does not have the last round hold open feature either. You would think that manufactures that do not have the last round hold open feature would design that firing pin more so like Ruger has done their 10/22, but apparently not.

Tony
 
#10 ·
I always go by the first advice I got concerning dry firing a rimfire...Don't. Not knowing which rifles are ok and which are not I just assume my rimfire could be damaged.
 
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