An amazing 11 million Glenfield 60’s have been sold since its introduction in 1960, proving an inexpensive .22 semiautomatic rifle appeals to everyone except gun writers.

by Paul Mazan

Why in the world would anyone write about the Glenfield 60? It seems most gun writers won’t. I can’t remember ever seeing an article on them. Despite the almost universal disdain for the inexpensive .22 by the pros, people buy them and gunsmiths see them in their shops on a regular basis. While there are hundreds of accessories available for the more expensive Ruger 10/22, finding anything except factory parts for the 60 is nigh on impossible. Still, with 11 million of them out there, every gunsmith, professional or amateur, needs to understand a little about them.

I was able to pick up a used Glenfield from Gunbroker.com for a $67.00 bid plus $25.00 shipping for a total price of $92.00 delivered to my favorite FFL holder at Family Pawn on Paris Road in Columbia MO. Since I bring a lot of guns through their shop I have spent a lot of time and effort to cultivate a mutually beneficial business and personal relationship with the guys that keep me supplied with guns to renovate and write about. Fortunately that was an easy task as they are as friendly a group as I have ever done business with.

What other semiautomatic .22 can you get at under $100? The gun I received was a newer model and my first task was to learn as much as I could about the gun and that starts with disassembly. I have three editions of the NRA Firearms Assembly books and the Marlin/Glenfield 60 isn’t covered in any of them. Did I mention that most of the industry ignores inexpensive guns? Searching my other reference material didn’t turn up any information so I downloaded an exploded drawing from the Numrich Gun Parts site (gunpartscorp.com) and relied on pictures I took with my digital camera.

Read more in our August 2013 issue. Back issues are available.

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