Gregory Gauvin
New member
When I was a young boy, there had been a small .22lr magazine in a box in the closet. The only firearm in the house at the time was my father's Winchester Model 290. I had no idea why or where this magazine came from.
Years later, as I began my gun collecting, I walked into a gun shop and found a Marlin Model 80DL with original Marlin scope. It was in pristine condition at a great price. But it had no magazine. For some odd reason, I just knew that magazine in the closet would fit. Turns out...it did. Doing research, I found that way back when the Model 80 was produced, they were originally furnished with an 8 round detachable magazine. At some point, Marlin stopped making these magazines and produced (or continue to produce for the discontinued rifles) 7 round magazines. They shorted the magazine one round because they added the red plastic follower. This red follower would act as an empty magazine indicator. The original 8 round magazine (which, are notorious to find), lacked any such red safety follower.
I asked my father where this magazine came about. He said before his grandfather (who worked at Winchester and hand selected his model 290) he had bought a .22lr bolt action Ruger rifle. He insists that it was a ruger, and that magazine was from said rifle - which he said shot terribly and he got rid of it.
I was researching old Ruger .22lr bolt actions. And I can not find any such rifle ever made by Ruger that would accept a Marlin magazine. Perhaps my father merely found the magazine at the range and took it him when he was a kid, but clearly, I can't fathom Marlin and Ruger having any interchangeable parts. I showed him my Marlin and he said it was not a Marlin, nor a Mossberg. And is positive it was a ruger.
I'm actually curious now which Ruger he had once owned, regardless of the magazine. What Ruger bolt action .22s models with a detachable magazine existed in the mid to late 1960s?
Years later, as I began my gun collecting, I walked into a gun shop and found a Marlin Model 80DL with original Marlin scope. It was in pristine condition at a great price. But it had no magazine. For some odd reason, I just knew that magazine in the closet would fit. Turns out...it did. Doing research, I found that way back when the Model 80 was produced, they were originally furnished with an 8 round detachable magazine. At some point, Marlin stopped making these magazines and produced (or continue to produce for the discontinued rifles) 7 round magazines. They shorted the magazine one round because they added the red plastic follower. This red follower would act as an empty magazine indicator. The original 8 round magazine (which, are notorious to find), lacked any such red safety follower.
I asked my father where this magazine came about. He said before his grandfather (who worked at Winchester and hand selected his model 290) he had bought a .22lr bolt action Ruger rifle. He insists that it was a ruger, and that magazine was from said rifle - which he said shot terribly and he got rid of it.
I was researching old Ruger .22lr bolt actions. And I can not find any such rifle ever made by Ruger that would accept a Marlin magazine. Perhaps my father merely found the magazine at the range and took it him when he was a kid, but clearly, I can't fathom Marlin and Ruger having any interchangeable parts. I showed him my Marlin and he said it was not a Marlin, nor a Mossberg. And is positive it was a ruger.
I'm actually curious now which Ruger he had once owned, regardless of the magazine. What Ruger bolt action .22s models with a detachable magazine existed in the mid to late 1960s?