Hey Guys! Let me say " Hey!" as I jump ship from the bowhunting forum and request a bit of help over here.

I have a Marlin 39 AS .22 that I just brought out of the closet and dusted off the case, and am going to start doind a lot more squirrel hunting with. The only problem is that as I was sighting it in a couple days ago, it misfired about every fifth shot.

I took it to the local gun store, and he suggested it might need a little more lubrication, and he pointed out as well that this particular model has a spring which keeps the hammer from resting against the firing pin at rest, sort of like a factory-induced half-cock. We oiled ' er up a bit, with hopes that the misfires would cease.

Next time out, I experienced the same thing; in fact, at one point, I had three misfires in a row! My hunting buddy has just been raving over the quality looks of this rifle, but now we' re both pretty suspect of its performance. I was shooting CCI ammo through it, and threw in a few Remington rounds to see if it would make a difference, and the gun misfired on both brands.

He suggested their gunsmith remove the spring holding the hammer back, and said this would virtually assure no more misfires. What do you guys think? Anyone else ever experience this problem?

Any help and all suggestions much appreciated!

Marlin has one of the very finest customer service departments anywhere....send it to them...don' t trust anyone else to mess with it.

Vapodog beat me to it. Send it back to Marlin.It' s probably something minor and easy to fix.Hope you get it corrected in time for the TreeRats.
Ruger Redhawk

I OWN A 39A AND HAVE SHOT IT SEVERAL HUNDRED TIMES WITHOUT CLEANING IT AND HAVE NEVER HAD A MISFIRE.WHAT KIND OF AMMO DO YOU USE?HAVE YOU TRIED A DIFFERENT BRAND?OPEN THE BOLT AND MAKE SURE THERE IS NO POWDER BUILDUP AROUND THE CHAMBER AND THE EXTRACTOR.I WOULD BET IT NEEDS CLEANING OR IT IS THE BRAND AMMO YOU SHOOT.THESE OLDER GUNS NEVER WEAR OUT ESPECIALLY THE REPEATERS.I SHOOT STINGERS,CCIS AND REMINGTON GOLDEN BULLETS ALL IN HOLLOW POINTS.

My 39AS is not exactly an older gun, as it is only a few years old -- and had less than forty or fifty rounds fired through it.

It' s clean as a whistle inside, as the gun shop guru thought the same thing (carbond buildup, dirt, etc.). We broke it down right there, and the only suggestion he had was it needed some more lubrication. He was miffed by the fact that CCI ammo misfired through it, but also said he' s seen a lot of this " finickiness," as he called it, in the 39AS. Must not be as reliable as the 39A, since you' ve never experienced any problems with yours.

I just wondered if you checked your hammerblock safety at the time of the misfire .

Did the firing pin leave any mark on the casings when it mis-fired?

I have had a couple of 39' s with one of them shooting literally thousands of rounds and I have never had any problem at all. The other one I have' nt shot much at all, its an older gun in mint condition and I don' t hunt with it.

No, the cross-bar safey was not on, as I would have several good firings, then all of a sudden, " ping" -- no shot.

Strut, the hammer does leave a pretty good indentation; we compared it to the other ones which fired, and there didn' t seem to be much of a difference. I guess there' s just enough, though. I do wish it would strike harder (deeper); I think that may be the crux of the issue.

I bet you are right, a new firing pin would fix your problem especially after you stated that it happened with different brands of ammo.

I am sure Marlin would fix it. It sounds like a firing pin problem. Was the rifle left cocked while you had it stored? This can weaken the firing pin spring.