why isn't my marlin xt-22 accurate?

[chop house]

i like the heft, balance, and even the trigger of this rifle. i have tried several good ammos of varying velocities and just when i think maybe i've found something good, the flyers show up. i'm talking maybe even missing a squirrel at 50 yds. to be honest i have a stock 10/.22 and a vintage rem 514 with a 4x weaver and about 62# triggers that shoot as well as the xt with the trigger set under 2#.

so, what is wrong with the design of that rifle? is it that floating dovetail receiver screw 'pillar'?

 

[dutch14]

Try posting under Marlin on the rimfire centeral forum. As far as I know it should shoot as well as any other factory rifle but with factory rifles it's a lottery and it also depends on what you call accurate.

 

[chop house]

Try posting under Marlin on the rimfire centeral forum. As far as I know it should shoot as well as any other factory rifle but with factory rifles it's a lottery and it also depends on what you call accurate.

thanks for the info. i would hope for fairly consistent 1/2" groups at 50 yds, no wind, with some sort of selected ammo.

 

[dutch14]

With my 10/22 ruger and mostly factory, I shoot about 1" at 50 yds prone. My groups get bigger when I switch to bolt guns because I am mostly a semi-auto shooter. Choice of ammo also makes a difference. To miss a squirl at 50 yds is probably not that uncommon with a factory rifle. Be careful when looking at posts on forums with only 1 group, the person went to the range and only shot 1 group or he is hiding the rest for some reason. My guns will through a random act of accuracy once in 30 groups that measures under .5" but my average is still about 1.17".

 

[Pyscodog]

Not being familiar with your rifle I did a search. I only watched one video and the guy seemed pretty pleased with his. It was the plastic stock version with a cheap Simmons scope on it. Either he didn't say or I missed what yardage he was shooting but his rifle was shooting pretty good for a $200 rifle and a cheap scope. His only negatives was the grip was small for his gorilla hands and he said after 1000 rounds the ejector started to give him problems not ejecting. He just carried a knife and pried out the FTE rounds. Cold bore shot was low but after that it was stacking them. Might be work a call to Marlin or who ever owns them now and see what they say.

 

[diyj98]

thanks for the info. i would hope for fairly consistent 1/2" groups at 50 yds, no wind, with some sort of selected ammo.

Not all rifles shoot great. I read a couple guys on another forum talking about their XT-22's being 3/4" to 1" guns at 50 yards. It may be that at that price point, they're not all going to be tack drivers.

 

[moorepower]

What ammo have you tried? I have a Savage FVSR that shoots Eley Black box, Norma subsonic, and UM1 in the .4's , but the CCI stds and mini mags were crap. .22lr shoot what they want to shoot, not always what you want them to shoot.

 

[chop house]

Not all rifles shoot great. I read a couple guys on another forum talking about their XT-22's being 3/4" to 1" guns at 50 yards. It may be that at that price point, they're not all going to be tack drivers.

if it was a consistent 3/4" at 50 i could understand, but the flyers are truly unexplained and well outside that. hence the query. optics are known good. conditions 'perfect'. bench set up good, as demonstrated a couple times to myself when unintentionally shooting it dry. so in my mind that leaves:

1. chamber
2. barrel
3. bedding
4. lockup
5. ignition

i've just kinda taken it on as a science project.

 

[chop house]

What ammo have you tried? I have a Savage FVSR that shoots Eley Black box, Norma subsonic, and UM1 in the .4's , but the CCI stds and mini mags were crap. .22lr shoot what they want to shoot, not always what you want them to shoot.

cci std and subsonic, ely yellow, sk rifle match, wolf match extra, aquila target and subsonic, norma usa match, blazer, browning pro v22 and others i can't recall right now. interesting your savage does not shoot cc std. on the same bench/time/conditions as testing the xt i shot this with my mkii heavy fluted without really trying too hard:

 

[DGP4]

With factory stock .22 rimfire rifles, it is the luck of the draw. Different brand ammo testing usually finds a winner, but you have already tried that. I have a Savage Mark II that will not shoot any SV ammo but loves HV Blazers, so go figure. You mention flyers as a problem, so I would check for a carbon ring or barrel crown problem.

 

[1Merlin]

Perhaps you have some bullet shaving or deformation loading from your mag(s)? Try some groups single loading....

 

[Todd Earhart]

The dovetail takedown lug is a poor design for accuracy.
Todd

 

[chop house]

The dovetail takedown lug is a poor design for accuracy.
Todd

that was my first thought. one dovetail takedown screw pulls on barrel and other goes into receiver, and tang is not floated. i put indicator on barrel to see how much movement occurred while selectively torqueing the two screws. was surprised it was only a couple thou between barrel and scope base.

i toyed with idea of epoxy bedding around that dovetail lug (the stock gives you a very convenient hole to fill up), but immediately realized the action can not come straight up out of the stock due to the mag release. the lug was very loose in the dovetail, so i peened the edge of the lug (at least being smart enough to not tamper with the barrel dovetail) to tighten it up and then applied jb weld to the lug dovetail and reassembled during curing.

i will get a chance to try it out tomorrow

 

[chop house]

Perhaps you have some bullet shaving or deformation loading from your mag(s)? Try some groups single loading....

the feed ramp is a plastic molding in the mag well. i will try single feed, and actually was already in the process of measuring for a single shot sled.

 

[Todd Earhart]

Several years ago we worked with a xt to see what we could do to get it better. I feel your pain trying to work with the lug. I can't remember what we finally came up with but its not far off what you are doing now. Ill ask my son and post back. If I remember right the barrel slugged good on this rifle.
Todd

 

[chop house]

I feel your pain trying to work with the lug.

thanks. if i see any improvement with what i've done, i will maybe remove the jb and silver solder the lug in place. then next step would be rework mag release so the lug can be bedded into that big hole.

like i said, a science project. hahaha

 

[1Merlin]

Why do you keep hitting your thumb with that hammer? Because it feels so good when I stop.

Sometimes the thing to do is to just move on........

 

[chop house]

Why do you keep hitting your thumb with that hammer? Because it feels so good when I stop.

Sometimes the thing to do is to just move on........

it is called 'scientific curiosity'. served me well in a 40 year engineering career. i am on no payroll but my own now. and, it's more fun than mowing the grass.

 

[Pyscodog]

With factory stock .22 rimfire rifles, it is the luck of the draw. Different brand ammo testing usually finds a winner, but you have already tried that. I have a Savage Mark II that will not shoot any SV ammo but loves HV Blazers, so go figure. You mention flyers as a problem, so I would check for a carbon ring or barrel crown problem.

Now that you mention this, I have a Savage with a heavy barrel that really doesn't care that much for high end match ammo but feed it some CCI Mini Mags and its a whole different story. It loves them and shoots very small groups. Not always one hole but your not gonna miss what your shooting at.

 

[One Eye Pete]

A few years back I bought a Marlin rimfire bolt action and if I remember correctly it was an XT. I tried everything to get it to shoot including bedding the action, playing with the action screw torque, Jard trigger (excellent trigger), numerous scopes, countless different brands/lots of ammo and even a tuner. After an exhausting effort I came to the conclusion that it was probably the chamber itself.
I did come up with a solution. I gave the Marlin to a friend and bought an Anschutz with a 64 action, a heavy barrel and a tight chamber. With the correct ammo (SK match or long range) and a tuner on the end of the barrel the "ANNIE" shoots bugholes at 50 yds and usually under an inch at 100. The problem I have now is that when I shoot a flyer with this gun it's me (usually not calling the wind correctly).
The friend I gave the Marlin to also tried and just couldn't get it to reliably shoot decent groups either.