New Marlin 795 Bolt is Nasty lookin'

[SparkyJeff]

I bought one of them Marlin 795's with the plastic stock simply because it was cheap and I wanted a .22 rifle that I wouldn't mind beating the crap out of.

Turns out Marlin beat me to it.

The action was not all that smooth as I was workin' it so I figured I would break the rifle down, pull out the Dremel and try to work some magic with a wire wheel/polish wheel etc.

I pulled out the bolt and saw this.

Looks OK for a hundred dollar .22. the side you always see.


WHAT???!!! what is this cr@p? I won't see this except when I take it apart, but REALLY?








I got the rifle at Fleet Farm, because I love that place, the lady at the gun counter opened the box in front of me, asked if I wanted to inspect it.. I had already decided I was buying the $99 Marlin 795. So I just looked it over and said "Yep that's what I want."

Man, I am bummed. The receiver side of this bolt looks all pitted and nasty. I don't know if the Pics will show what it really looks like. but to me it looks like a brake rotor of a car that gets driven through salt water twice a year, and then sits until the next trip through seawater. PITTED

I wanted to shoot this bugger tomorrow at Easter on the farm. But now ..

This rifle is 4 hours out of the box.

Does anybody have experience with the new Marlington customer service?
Send the whole rifle back? Just the bolt? just leave it as is? I gotta pay for shipping? I'd rather not ship the whole rifle, as I'm never home during the day to sign for a package delivered back to me. parts can be left on the porch.

If anybody can give me any knowledge/advice/perspective I'd appreciate it.

Thanks
JJ

[rugersol]

Marlin is one of my least favorite for customer service ... at least over the phone ... never seem to git much further, than that ... YMMV.

That said, if sent it to 'em, with the photos ya got there, I'd be surprised if they didn't make good on it. Might cost some shipping.

Purdy sure Fleet Farm won't take back a gun ... but, if ya left it apart so they could see it, and brought it there, and did yer best Rosanne Bar impression, who knows? At the very least, most any other "dealer" will ship it back to the manufacturer for such things (sometimes, they won't even charge ya). Don't know 'bout Fleet Farm, but if plan A. fails, maybe they'll at least ship it back for ya?

I wouldn't call ahead ... they'll most likely say "no".

[Scott Notaeh]

Mine looks like that too. Perhaps not quite as bad as yours but close. Shoots just fine though.

[1911fan]

220'wet or dry paper and a flat piece of glass wet the paper and stick it to the glass and flat sand the side of the bolt.


If FF is selling the gun for $99 theyre buying it for $79delivered which means Marlin is making the gun for about $39 to make Anything on it when they sell it to Hicks or RSR, so getting a highly polished anything at that price is pretty good so add a few minutes of your own labor and finish the job

[onebohemian]

220'wet or dry paper and a flat piece of glass wet the paper and stick it to the glass and flat sand the side of the bolt.

I agree with this. I'd add that you shouldn't make it your goal to remove as much material as it would take to smooth out the piece and eliminate all evidence of the pitting. Clean it up to make yourself feel better and shoot the heck out of it. Shoot it today and don't worry about it. Clean it up when you get time later.

BTW, thanks for showing us one of the reasons these things are under 100 bucks.

[Stradawhovious]

Flat sand or stone the burrs off the one side enough for the action to run more smoothly and be done with it. Just dont take a lot of meat.

Two things come to mind....

1. its a NIB $99 rifle. As such fit and finish is low on the list of priorities.

2. The side that is ugly is never going to be seen when the gun is assembled, so if you don't tell anyone, they will never know.

My guess is that if you take it to the range and run a brick of .22 through it, it will be running like a champ in no time.

Oh yeah, and put down the dremel........ that will just make it worse.

[timwarner]

bout 10 seconds on a surface grinder would clean that right up.

[farmerj]

I am thinking he could buff it out on the belt sander as well. Nice 100 grit. Maybe even some 80.

[timwarner]

if it REALLLY bothers you, I can dust it off with a fine wheel on my surface grinder, should give a nicer finish than the other side.

[Norsesmithy]

I've got one of these 100 dollar marlins too, and while mine wasn't quite that nasty, it was pretty bad in its own right. Sand it some with a flat (glass trick etc), and shoot the piss out of it. It'll be fine.

[goalie]

Mine looks like **** but shoots well.

For 100 bucks, it isn't about looks.

[JoeH]

For 100 bucks, it isn't about looks.

That could be said of a lot of things.

[Squib Joe]

Putting it on the belt sander will put it out of spec. If the firearm works, try not to worry about what you can't see. There are many guns with rough castings and machining out of sight.

[SparkyJeff]

First Thank you very much to everybody that chimed in.

I have an old glenfield 60 with a real nice squirrel stock, and I've cleaned maybe a dozen mod 60's over the years for friends and family that have a hard time figuring out the best way to go about it.
This is the first time I've seen a bolt like this. But I've found out in the last day that many, many people have rifles with parts that look like this.
I also posted on Rimfire central and got very similar replies from those guys.

I put about 80 rounds through it today, and it worked well enough.

Oh yeah, and put down the dremel........ that will just make it worse.

I only used a wire wheel in the dremel, it was a steel wheel, but still just a wheel

the rifle is really light, the plastic stock is hollow-- which gets me thinking about a little emergency kit to put in there. extra ammo, a homemade patchworm, some patches, CLP, maybe a nylon brush, extra magazine, etc etc. Then make it easier to pull the rear plate off.
I already disabled the magazine safety.
I'm considering updating the sights now. I just can't leave well enough alone.

[Viseprints]

I have one. Shot a 3/4" five shot group with a cheap 4X scope at 50 yds. with bulk Fed. 36 gr. HP's first time to the range. I have not taken mine out of the stock and won't now cuz I don't want to see if it looks like yours. But I had to pay more than $99 for mine at Scheels last fall.