Man, that is really hard to say with a budget mass produced rifle shooting factory ammo. It will greatly depend on how good the rifle is that you purchase, if you find the right ammo it really likes and how well you shoot to begin with.

That being said I have owned two over the years and both shot pretty well. The last one I had would shoot better than one inch groups at 50 yards with a 2-7x32 scope and ammo it liked. I even got some 1 inch groups at 100 yards with CCI velocitors out of it.

From what I have seen the marlins tend to be more accurate out of the box than the ruger 10/22's are, and for less money. Not always though, and the 10/22 has more potential as far as upgrades go if you wanted to target shoot with it.

Paul