Which Marlin Magazine Fits a Bolt Action .22?

The Yard-Sale Bolt Gun With an Empty Magazine Well

You find a Marlin bolt-action .22 at an estate sale for forty dollars. The stock is a little scratched, the bore looks clean when you hold it up to the light, and the price is right. One problem: there's no magazine in the gun, and the seller has no idea what model it is. You get it home, pull up your phone, and start searching "Marlin bolt action .22 magazine" — and now you're looking at a wall of listings that all claim to fit "most Marlin bolt actions." That phrase should make you nervous.

Running ARM's order desk, this is one of the most common calls we get: someone bought a used rifle, a magazine got lost between owners, and now they're trying to match a part to a gun they can't fully identify. The good news is that Marlin's detachable-magazine bolt-action .22 rifles fall into a small number of well-documented families, and figuring out which one you own takes about five minutes if you know where to look. This guide walks through it step by step, so you order the right magazine the first time instead of paying return shipping on the wrong one.

Detachable Box vs. Tube-Fed: Know Which One You Own Before You Shop

Not every Marlin .22 takes a magazine you can buy. Marlin built plenty of rimfire rifles — bolt actions included — around a tubular magazine that runs under the barrel and loads through a port at the muzzle end or a loading gate. The Marlin Model 60 family is the best-known example of this: it's tube-fed, it has no detachable magazine, and there is nothing to order for it. If your rifle loads that way, this article isn't for you, and no listing that claims otherwise is telling you the truth.

What you're looking for instead is a rifle with a magazine well cut into the stock just forward of the trigger guard, usually with a floorplate or a small lever that releases a removable box. If you can pull a magazine straight down and out of the bottom of the action, or if there's an empty slot where one clearly used to sit, you own a detachable-magazine bolt gun, and one of the families below almost certainly covers it.

It's worth double-checking this before you spend money, because the difference isn't cosmetic — a tube-fed action has no magazine catch, no feed lips, and no part number to reference. Confusing the two wastes a phone call and, more often, an online order that gets returned.

Find the Model Number Before You Shop for a Magazine

Once you know you're dealing with a detachable box magazine, the next step is identifying exactly which rifle you have. Marlin stamps the model number on the left side of the barrel, usually just ahead of the receiver. Look there first — not on the stock, not on the box if you still have it, and not on a bluing wear pattern that might make one digit look like another.

Write that model number down before you go shopping. Every magazine listing on a reputable site organizes fitment by model number in the product description, and that's the number you match against, not a general description like "bolt action .22" or a photo that looks similar to your gun. Our own Marlin rifle replacement magazine guide is built around exactly this kind of model-first lookup, and it's the page to bookmark if you're ever unsure.

If the stamp is worn past reading — it happens on guns that have spent forty years in a truck rack — take the rifle to a gunsmith or a local shop counter rather than guessing. A five-minute look from someone who handles these rifles regularly beats ordering three magazines and hoping one works. When in doubt, check your rifle in person before you check out online.

The Marlin XT-22 Series: Today's Bolt-Action .22 Magazine Platform

If your rifle is newer, there's a good chance it's part of Marlin's XT-22 series, which is the current production bolt-action rimfire line. The XT-22R chambers .22 LR, the XT-22M chambers .22 WMR, and the XT-17 chambers .17 HMR. All three share the same magazine layout: a single-stack, detachable box magazine that seats forward of the trigger guard and drops free when you press the release.

These rifles are sold new through major retailers, so parts and magazines are generally easier to find than for discontinued models. The important thing to remember is that the caliber-specific body matters more than the fact that all three share a family name — an XT-22M magazine is built around the .22 WMR case, and it will not run correctly in an XT-22R chambered for .22 LR, even though the two magazines can look similar at a glance.

If you own one of these rifles, match the exact variant stamped on the barrel — XT-22R, XT-22M, or XT-17 — to the caliber listed on the magazine's product page before you order. That one extra check is the difference between a magazine that locks in and feeds cleanly and one that seats but never quite runs right.

The Classic 880-Series Bolt Guns Still Turning Up at Gun Shows

A lot of the bolt-action Marlins circulating on the used market and at gun shows come from the older 880-series lineup built in the 1990s and 2000s: the Model 880 in .22 LR, the 882 and 883 in .22 WMR, the 917 in .17 HMR, and the economy-grade 925 in .22 LR. Marlin discontinued this family years ago, but it was produced in high enough numbers that used examples show up constantly — often, like the yard-sale rifle at the start of this guide, without a magazine.

These rifles use single-stack detachable box magazines matched to their caliber, generally holding around seven rounds depending on the specific model and caliber. Because these guns have been out of production for a while and the model stamps can be worn or partially obscured, don't assume you know which one you have from memory or from what the seller told you — check the barrel stamp yourself and match it against the caliber-specific listing.

If you're piecing together a family hand-me-down or a gun-show find and the model number is genuinely unreadable, treat it the same way as a worn XT-series rifle: check your rifle in person, and lean on a fitment guide rather than a generic "fits most 880 series" listing that doesn't specify caliber.

Why Caliber Decides Fit, Not Just the Model Name

This is the point that trips up more buyers than any other: two Marlin bolt actions can share a model family and still take completely different magazines, because .22 LR, .22 WMR, and .17 HMR are different cartridges with different case dimensions. A .22 WMR or .17 HMR magnum magazine is built around a longer, thicker case than .22 LR, and it will not feed .22 LR ammunition well even if you can force it into the well of a .22 LR rifle.

The reverse is just as true. A magazine sized for standard-velocity .22 LR won't hold or properly feed the longer magnum cartridges. This isn't a minor fitment quirk — it's the reason "universal .22 magazine" listings should raise a flag every time you see one. Our breakdown of .22 WMR vs. .17 HMR magazine differences goes deeper into exactly how these two magnum cartridges compare to each other and to standard .22 LR.

Practically, this means your shopping process has two checks, not one: model number first, caliber second. A magazine can be the correct family and still be the wrong caliber if you skip that second step. Read the caliber marking stamped on your barrel alongside the model number, and match both before you click "buy."

Capacity Choices: What "7-Round" and "10-Round" Actually Mean

Most factory bolt-action Marlin box magazines, across both the XT-22 series and the older 880-series guns, are built as compact single-stack designs holding around seven rounds. That's the standard capacity you should expect to see listed for the majority of these rifles, and it's a good baseline to check any listing against — if a magazine claims a much higher round count for one of these bolt guns without explaining the body length difference, read the fine print before ordering.

Extended-capacity options do exist for some rimfire platforms, and our guide to 4-, 7-, and 10-round .22 WMR magazine options walks through how those capacities differ and which rifles they apply to.

• Standard bolt-action magazines: typically around 7 rounds, single stack
• Extended options: available for select models and calibers, not universal across the whole bolt-action lineup
• Capacity rules vary by state, especially for anything above the factory-standard round count

Before you order anything above the standard factory capacity, verify current law in your state. We're not in a position to give legal advice on magazine capacity limits, and the rules genuinely differ by state and change over time — our magazine capacity laws by state page is a starting point, but the responsibility to confirm current law sits with you.

Mistakes That Get Buyers the Wrong Bolt-Action Magazine

After a few years of fielding fitment questions, the same handful of mistakes account for most of the wrong-magazine orders we see. None of them are complicated to avoid once you know to watch for them.

• Ordering from a listing that says "fits most Marlin bolt action .22 rifles" without checking your specific model number against the description
• Assuming a magnum .22 WMR or .17 HMR magazine will work in a .22 LR rifle because it physically resembles the right shape
• Confusing a tube-fed rimfire like the Model 60 with a detachable-magazine bolt gun and searching for a magazine that doesn't exist for that rifle
• Buying based on a photo that "looks the same" instead of reading the model number stamped on the left side of the barrel
• Skipping the state capacity check before ordering an extended magazine

Every one of these mistakes has the same fix: identify the model number first, confirm the caliber second, and match both against the product page description rather than the photo or the headline. It takes an extra minute and it's the difference between a magazine that locks in and feeds and one that goes back in a box for return shipping.

Keeping the Magazine You Buy Running Reliably

Getting the correct magazine is half the job — keeping it feeding well is the other half. Rimfire magazines are unforgiving of grit and dry lint in a way centerfire magazines often aren't, because .22 LR and .22 WMR rounds are small and light enough that a sluggish spring or gummed-up feed lips will cause a missed feed almost immediately.

Wipe the feed lips down after range trips, especially if you've been shooting in dusty conditions, and avoid storing a magazine fully loaded for months at a time — it doesn't ruin a quality spring the way old wives' tales suggest, but it's still good practice to rotate ammunition through it periodically. A light coat of gun oil on the follower and spring, not a heavy soak, is enough to keep things moving smoothly.

If a magazine you're confident is correctly fitted still isn't feeding well, don't assume it's defective before you troubleshoot. Our rimfire magazine reliability troubleshooting guide covers the most common causes — from weak springs to bent feed lips — and how to fix each one before you write off a magazine that might just need cleaning.

Buying in Bulk for a Shop, Range, or Multiple Family Rifles

If you're a gunsmith, a range rental counter, or you just own three or four of these rifles across the family, the fitment discipline above matters even more, because a mistake doesn't cost you one wrong order — it costs you a stack of them. We regularly work with shops that keep an inventory of correct-caliber magazines on hand for the XT-22 series and the older 880-series guns, precisely because those are the rifles that walk through the door most often needing a replacement.

The process scales the same way it does for a single buyer: confirm the model number stamped on each rifle's barrel, sort by caliber, and order accordingly rather than assuming a batch purchase can be "close enough." A magazine that's close but wrong for even one rifle in a batch order is a return you didn't need to process.

If you're sourcing in volume, our guide to finding reputable wholesale rifle magazine suppliers covers what to look for in a supplier relationship, from consistent US-made tolerances to lead times you can actually plan a shop schedule around.

Your Next Step

Before you order anything, go check the rifle. Look at the left side of the barrel for the model number, confirm the caliber marking next to it, and note whether the magazine well is a detachable box or a tube. Once you have that model number and caliber written down, match it against the product description on the magazine you're about to buy — not the headline, not the photo. That one habit will save you more returned packages than any other tip in this guide.