Home Forums Lever Action Central Marlin Talk Marlin M1 22

Saw one of these today, anyone know much about them? looked like a M1, 1st that I have ever saw, guess they were made 1968 -78
John

IIRC that is a Marlin 99 semi-automatic.

I had one about 1969. Sample of one so with that as a caveat...

It's been many years but my lasting impression of it was that it was a jam-a-matic. Lots of failures to feed and eject. Plus, the tipoff scope mounts I used kept sliding on the aluminum receiver. The aluminum was so soft that they just wouldn't grip tightly enough and actually gouged the rails as the scope crept forward under "recoil". I quote that word since recoil and .22's are an oxymoron, but my scope mount definitely kept slipping.

That said, it looked cool to a 17 year old kid raised on "The Sands of Iwo Jima" and "Combat" and it was fun to hip shoot at tin cans and stuff.

Got rid of it, bought a Ruger 10-22 and never looked back. The Ruger is still in my closet today.

I ran across one of these a couple years back in a well known Houston Gunshop. It still had a couple of the manufacture's stickers on the bottom of the forearm. One stated the stock is genuine walnut, the other I can't recall at the moment ( and it isn't handy right now ). It also still retained the original rear sight that mounts on the receiver dovetails. If I recall correctly, I believe it cost me around $125-$150 out the door.
I ran some CCI long rifles through it with no problems. I believe the little short tube held 10 rounds. The open sites and my eyes managed 2 to 3 inch groups at 50 yds. Soda can accurate anyway, which is how I view it, just a fun gun.
The barrel marking is something along the lines of " Marlin Firearms Co. Model 99-M1 " I haven't had it out of the big safe in awhile, so working from an old memory here, and I have slept since then.