I was able to acquire a Marlin 2000 from our local Boy Scout camp. They are in the process of upgrading equipment and this riffle was surplus. It was not in the best shape when I picked it up. The blue stock was in bad shape and in places warn down to the fiberglass. The rifle shoots fine and still has the sights, and the barrel is in good shape. My plan is to bring it back to life and set it up to shoot long distance silhouette targets. A local club has an informal .22 series of events and i am thinking this rifle will work well. The plan is to refinish the stock, add a scope, a magazine and a bi-pod and see how well I can do at 100 meters.
The stock has been stripped, then I filled all of the flaws and scratches with epoxy. It was then well sanded. The next step was 5 coats of dark brown with sanding after every other coat. Then the first pattern was put down using my light tan paint. Once this dried I added the flag decal and the next layer of camo pattern material. Then it received a coat of green as the final paint coat. The flag decal was removed and a very light over spray of brown was added for contrast. Once this was dry It received 15 coats of satin lacquer with sanding after every third coat. It looks good and the satin finish should make it durable.
I cleaned up the metal and put the gun back together. I am waiting on some parts before it is completed, but now it at least looks like a riffle again.
I took the rifle to the range over the weekend after installing an old 4-9 scope. I was able to get it sighted in, but came across an issue. It misfires on about 20% of the rounds. It looks like it is not hitting the primer rim hard enough. I used three different types of ammunition and then used the misfires in a Browning T-Bolt and they all fired so I am sure it is the Model 2000 that has a problem. I am looking for suggestions. I took the bolt apart as far as I dared and cleaned and lubricated it well. If that does not work I am thinking that I may need a new firing pin and or spring, but I checked and Marlin does not sell parts for this older riffle. Are there any suggestions on how to fix my issue or buy parts for this rifle?
I was able to buy a new firing pin and firing pin spring and they have now been installed. I also added a Harris bi-pod. Hopefully this weekend I can take it to the range and see if my new parts improve the reliability. If all goes well the next step is to replace the scope. Then I will be adding the biathlon kit with a 10 round magazine.
I finally had my new scope mounted this afternoon so I guess I am ready to go out and burn some powder this weekend. This has been a fun project for a gun that I never really wanted in the first place, but now I really like it and it is fun to shoot. I took it to a .22-silhouette a couple of weeks ago with an old crappy scope and did OK out to 200 meters. With my new scope properly mounted I should actually be competitive at the next shoot. This is what I have done to this old rifle to get it to were it is today. -Striped the stock -Filled and sanded the stock -Base coat of paint with four coats of camouflage paint -Flag stencil -15 coats of clear lacquer -New firing pin & firing pin spring -Modified lower rail and ejector kit with two magazines -Front sling post -Harris bi-pod -Removed peep-sights -BKL Technologies single piece scope mount -Nikon P-RimFire 2-7x32 scope with BDC raticle With my preliminary tests at the range the rifle seems to be very accurate.
