Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Marlin XT22 Barrel Removal/Reinstall?

Have had this clip fed rifle for a number of years, but it has always bothered me that the barrel is canted to one side, meaning that the iron sites are not in line with the receiver. It is accurate with a scope, but the stud which the front take-down screw goes through is also canted. It cannot be tightened without pulling the forearm to that side of the barrel. At the time, Remlington owned Marlin and I sent it in. They did nothing to it other than give it an accuracy test.

Seems as though if I want the problem corrected, it's up to me, so my questions are:

How difficult is it to drive the barrel retaining pin out? Should that pin be replaced with a new? If so, where to get?
Once the pin is reinstalled, will the rifle still be accurate?

Most retaining pins will drive out, you might have to use a short starter punch to get it to move initially. After the pin is out, the barrel should rotate in the receiver with some effort. After things are aligned and headspaced, apply a generous amount of wicking locker such as Afterlock. Let the assembly sit overnight, then an oversized retaining pin can be fitted. Without the chemical locker, the barrel could turn and let the drill follow the old hole.
A really elegant fix would be to get a tapered pin reamer and fit a tapered pin such as those used on AR sight towers.

I’d do as suggested above but use a center cutting endmill for the new pin hole.

When you get the pins out use a HSS tool bit blank in the sight dovetail to put a good machinist’s level on and do the same with a scope base to get the sights centered up.

Got the following from 2152hq on Accuratereloading, Gunsmithing:

"Before you go and rotate the bbl to have the sights line up at 12 o'clock,,,
Check the extractor cuts on the breech face of the bbl.
IF the extractor cuts are in the correct position and are NOT mis-aligned as well, then leave the bbl right where it is.

Rotating the bbl to make the sights look good will put the extractor cuts out of position on the breech and you will have feed, bolt closing & extraction problems."

The extractor cuts ARE in the correct position. I would just be creating a worse problem doing anything with the barrel. Guess I'll just have to live with the
oddity. It is scoped and very accurate for a factory .22lr so will just drop this big idea!