I’m continuing my off-season rimfire craze, now with the Marlin XT-22. The XT 22 is a low price point, magazine fed, bolt action 22 LR. This rifle comes in hardwood, synthetic, stainless, camo, heavy barrel, threaded for suppressors, tubular magazine, and 22 WMR versions. There’s also the XT-22Y youth model as well as XT-17 17 HMR (my review here) models. The Marlin XT-22 is compared most often to the Savage Mark II and the new Ruger American Rimfire. With a bump in price range, the CZ 455 and CZ 452 come into play, but that’s a considerable jump in price.
Usability
When comparing the Marlin bolt 22 vs the Savage or Ruger, easily the most important aspect to any buyer out there should be the usability. They’re all very accurate for the dollar, but usability varies depending on what the user prefers.
The trigger on the Marlin uses the excellent Pro-Fire trigger system. This system is just slightly superior to the Savage Accutrigger in that it doesn’t lock up the action if you pull the trigger without pulling the lever/shoe or if you sideload the trigger. It’s very comparable in function to the Ruger American Rimfire.
The safety is a thumb toggle on the right of the action, just like the Savage. The Ruger American opts for a tang safety, which is my preference. That said, I rarely carry rimfires loaded with the safety on. Maybe it’s just my overly cautious firearms handling from when I was a kid, but I find I’ve usually got time to work the bolt on a 22 when hunting small game, so I don’t usually bother with the safety at all: I just keep the chamber with a fired round or empty.
For magazines, you either get a flush-ish mount 4 rounder or a 7 round magazine. That compares somewhat to the Savage’s 5 or 10 round magazine, and very poorly against the Ruger’s flush mount 10 round rotary and incredible aftermarket extended magazine support. If you want a 25 round, 50 round, or even 100 round magazine for the Ruger, you can get one. The magazine release on the Marlin XT-22 is a simple spring steel part, like the Savage, but unlike the better Ruger part. Unfortunately, none of these magazine offerings are really great using just 1 hand. Whereas many centerfire rifles have magazine systems that are easy to use with 1 hand, with the other hand holding the rifle, most of the rimfire mags need a hand to press the release, and 1 to pull the magazine out. Even with the Ruger, you have to press the magazine release and kinda stick your index finger forward of the mag to pull it out.
The bolt on the Marlin is a “reduced bolt force” design. Reading into the marketing materials a bit, they’re claiming it’s easier to lift the bolt due to reduced cock-on-open force required.
The Marlin XT-22 is milled for 3/8 dovetail mounts as well as drilled and tapped for, in my opinion, better scope mounting with the Weaver system. That’s great, but both the Savage and Ruger both offer it as well.
Marlin XT-22 Accuracy
Depends largely on the individual rifle and what ammo you can test with it. I found it pretty easy to get into 0.5″ – 1″ groups at 50 yards.
Summary
Basic bolt action rifles like the Marlin XT-22, Savage Mark II and Ruger American Rimfire are fantastic value for the dollar, and are great places for new shooters, young and old, to start off with. They offer more accuracy from standing, kneeling, and prone positions than most can take advantage of, are very usable, and come in plenty of varieties to suit different activities. I’d say that it’s pretty much a dead draw between the Savage Mark II and the Marlin XT-22, and the Ruger American is definitely the new sexy BUT it’s much more expensive than either the Savage or Marlin and it’s pretty much unobtainable in Canada at the moment. For those reasons, I’d go for either the Savage Mk II or the Marlin XT-22, depending on what the user prefers.
