Re: wanting to buy .22
I'd vote against the Marlin 60 myself. It was my first gun, still own it (can see a pic of it in the Rimfire Stick's thread page 5) I've seen a lot of people talk it up, but honestly, ever sense owning it, it stove pipes a lot. Regardless of what ammo I put through it, it's not uncommon to stove pipe once or twice out of the 14 rounds. Having said that, I've also plowed through 3-4 14 round strings back to back without a problem several times before too. So... go figure.
It's always been a fun gun, just not very reliable (kind of a mute point for a plinker, but worth mentioning).
Having said that though, I've beat the piss out of it over the years (especially when I was younger, taking it on hikes through the woods, etc.) And nothing has broken, wobbled loose, or anything. It's been dropped several times onto river rock, into the river once, out in the brush n' rain for hours countless times, etc... All up to what you want in a rifle I guess. My vote, would still go towards something else though. Just my 2 cents of experience.