Hi there. I own a Marlin 39 lever 22, and I have been recently having some extraction issues. I keep it squeaky clean and well lubricated, and it has always refused to extract any ammo but Winchester, which worked perfectly every time (Winchester has a thicker, more squared off rim I believe). I obliged, thinking the problem was solved and I chalked it up as a quirk that could be lived with. Recently, it has been sparodically failing to eject Winchester ammo as well. it's still better than with remingtons and federals, which fail to eject 2-3 times out of 10. I think that the gun may have a faulty ectractor (a masterful stroke of deduction, I know) that is finally wearing enough that it won't work well with any ammo. I got it second hand, after a guy had bought it brand new only a week before and returned it (that should have tipped me off, but it has worked flawlessly for 6.5 years with winchesters before the problem has progressed). Has anyone here had a similar problem?

My first thought? Take it to a gunsmith and have them give it a look-see.

My second thought would be to relate to you that as a kid, I had experience with two Marlin 39As, and that one of them was so worn out, shell casings would rupture and blow hot powder out the back. My father had purchased that one, probably used, in the late 40s or early 50s and had simply shot so many rounds through it that he wore it out, hence the reason we had two of them. They will wear out over time and use.

I don't see why only 6.5 years would be enough to wear one out though. I loved that second 39A - it was VERY reliable, shot any and all brands of LR ammo without a hitch and was probably the most accurate .22 of the ones I used while growing up. Sadly, that one got away a couple of weeks ago when we had the auction for my Dad's guns. My sister said she was going to bid on it, got confused about which rifle she wanted to bid on and by the time I realized what was going on so that I could get in on the bid to keep it, I heard the Auctioneer say "Sold, for $475!"

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Patrick G.

The extractor was marginal to begin with for whatever reason, and just finally wore out, best guess. I've never had my 39 fail to extract anything - any size .22, any brand of case, nothing.

Get another extractor - call Marlin. I'm sure it's not an expensive part.

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MikeG

I have had to replace the extractors on two newer Marlins. Just call them and order a couple of extras. They can be reshaped to work better, but its good to have a spare.

Before you haul off and buy new ones, take the extractor out of the bolt and clean it as well as the recess with a pipe cleaner and solvent. Also, the extractor cut. Make sure there are no burrs at the chamber. This helped on my 1957 model which has a new extractor. If the problem pops up again, I'm going to do some polishing and reshaping.

Just on general principles, any time a 22RF that can handle shorts, longs, or long rifles begins to have extraction issues, clean the chamber.
The reason for that is that shooting shorts in a rifle often builds up a bit of crud where the short cartridges case mouth is- part way up the long rifle length chamber. The crud build up can often cause extraction problems.
You run into this problem more often on bolt, pump, and lever action 22's, as autoloaders tend to get fed only LR ammo.