The Marlin Ballard "kit"!

[GunnyMack]

I gotcha, just a thought.
Horn is really tough stuff to work, after all it's a buffalos weapons and gotta be durable!

[marlinman93]

I gotcha, just a thought.
Horn is really tough stuff to work, after all it's a buffalos weapons and gotta be durable!

Yes, considering how much force they can exert against each other in a fight it's gotta be very hard.

[marlinman93]

Got the call from Al this morning, and he's got my parts and already starting on them! He'll anneal them today and then touch up the polishing and color case them this week.

[Griff]

It appears to be coming along nicely... oughta be a real beauty when done!

[marlinman93]

It appears to be coming along nicely... oughta be a real beauty when done!

Thanks. I hope it looks good, and shoots excellent too!

[marlinman93]

Both buttplates done fairly close now. Not attached in these two pictures, just sitting in position. I like both, but leaning towards the single prong brass buttplate a little.

[marlinman93]

Just got a text message from Al! Including a picture of my completed Ballard receiver! Parts are heading to me Monday morning! As always with Al the colors are spectacular!

[GunnyMack]

That has stunning colors!

[.45colt]

This is the thread that gets better every week!! .

[marlinman93]

That has stunning colors!

Al always does great, but I think this is the best I've ever gotten from him so far! Couldn't have hoped for anything better! Now I'll be anxiously waiting until it arrives and I can reassemble it with it's new parts!

[marlinman93]

This is the thread that gets better every week!! .

Thanks! Hope it continues to get better!

[GunnyMack]

Part of the reason the colors are so great is the mass of the action.
We did case hardening in school, some of the best colors came from the heavier actions.
I did a Mauser 98 that had great colors, sadly when we quenched it it warped at the rear bridge. We tried to tweak it and of course with my luck it broke! I had to anneal it to dead soft, weld up the crack and sent it out for commercial heat treatment. It became a 6mm Remington, boy was that a great shooter- I kick myself for selling it!

[Pat C]

Lot of the reason actions crack or warp is if was originally case hardened and not annealed before doing it again.
Lot of people doing this work today is required .

[marlinman93]

Lot of the reason actions crack or warp is if was originally case hardened and not annealed before doing it again.
Lot of people doing this work today is required .

Al told me he anneals every action prior to case hardening them. I know mine was annealed also as it had a tiny bit of pitting on one side I just couldn't get off. I couldn't feel it, but there was a dark area on the left side and Al said he'd take care of it after he annealed it so it would be easier t polish. Al always goes above and beyond what I ask for, and I trust what he says he wants to do to anything I send him.

[marlinman93]

Well my parts still haven't arrived, and as soon as they left Montana things went sideways. They headed south to Cheyenne, Wy. then Denver. Then went back to Billings, Mt. and back to Denver again! Then back to Billings, and are now in Denver AGAIN!
I'm going to my local postal station to see if there's anything they can do to file a report or get the parts heading West instead of just looping between Billings and Denver!
I really, really hate USPS!

[Pat C]

You have same luck I have on shipping guns.
Go to the web site and report as an official case. Takes just a few minutes. They will call you and when they do tell them it contains a firearm and the OIG may get involved . They can tell who and where each scan took place if suspicious activity.

Has to do this several times now .

[Marc]

Mail goes to Denver to die! I have had similar experiences with them. I live in western Colorado and most of my mail goes through Denver. Twice they have sent my packages to Salt Lake City. I have also had some returned to the sender from Denver for no apparent reason. Packages disappear there.

That is going to be a beautiful rifle when you are done! I hope usps comes through for you.

[marlinman93]

You have same luck I have on shipping guns.
Go to the web site and report as an official case. Takes just a few minutes. They will call you and when they do tell them it contains a firearm and the OIG may get involved . They can tell who and where each scan took place if suspicious activity.

Has to do this several times now .

I filed a complaint on Sunday, and never got a call, even though I checked the box stating I wanted to be contacted by phone. Instead I got a case number sent to me by email, and nothing yesterday or today. But I did check the tracking a bit ago and it shows it arrived at my distribution center this morning just after 9:00a.m., so maybe my filing got it moving? We'll see if it gets delivered tomorrow or not?

[marlinman93]

Mail goes to Denver to die! I have had similar experiences with them. I live in western Colorado and most of my mail goes through Denver. Twice they have sent my packages to Salt Lake City. I have also had some returned to the sender from Denver for no apparent reason. Packages disappear there.

That is going to be a beautiful rifle when you are done! I hope usps comes through for you.

I was told my a friend in Montana that the governor ordered the attorney general to sue USPS for not doing their job in Montana, so might be part of the issue with anything USPS in Montana? Here's the story:

https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbre ... fcaf79f50e

[Pat C]

Each time I've done it Ive got a call . Everytime they scan that package it takes a picture of the item and they know exactly where it is. Where it was at at time and who performed the scan .

[marlinman93]

Each time I've done it Ive got a call . Everytime they scan that package it takes a picture of the item and they know exactly where it is. Where it was at at time and who performed the scan .

I'm signed up for USPS Informed Delivery, and get a daily update and pictures of mail or packages. But since the day this package was first sent out I've never gotten a single update even mentioning it by tracking number, or a picture! I've had to check tracking daily to see if it's moving, and I immediately saw it going the wrong direction and knew this wasn't going to end well.
I got a call from USPS yesterday and she began by apologizing, then went straight into telling me it got stalled in Denver due to bad weather. I stopped her and told her it should never have headed south to Denver in the first place, and even then had it gone to my city it wasn't bad weather the first time; it was the second trip to Denver that had bad weather! She couldn't explain that, as it would be admitting incompetence. Then she told me it was here in town and would be delivered today. I asked why it wasn't delivered yesterday and she said it "got in town in the afternoon Tuesday", which was a lie I called her on. I told her to look at the tracking as it got scanned at 9:15 a.m. Tuesday, and my post office is 3 miles away! It should have gone there Tuesday, and been delivered Wednesday! She assured me the package would be delivered today, and I told her I wasn't all that sure myself. It did get to my local post office, so we'll see about today. It does show "out for delivery" this morning, so maybe.

[GunnyMack]

I've said it before and I'll say it again,
PRIVATIZE THE USPS!
Get rid of the union , start holding individual employees accountable.
I truly hope your parts are safe and sound when you finally get them!

[black river smith]

Each time I've done it Ive got a call . Everytime they scan that package it takes a picture of the item and they know exactly where it is. Where it was at at time and who performed the scan .

I'm signed up for USPS Informed Delivery, and get a daily update and pictures of mail or packages. But since the day this package was first sent out I've never gotten a single update even mentioning it by tracking number, or a picture! I've had to check tracking daily to see if it's moving, and I immediately saw it going the wrong direction and knew this wasn't going to end well.
I got a call from USPS yesterday and she began by apologizing, then went straight into telling me it got stalled in Denver due to bad weather. I stopped her and told her it should never have headed south to Denver in the first place, and even then had it gone to my city it wasn't bad weather the first time; it was the second trip to Denver that had bad weather! She couldn't explain that, as it would be admitting incompetence. Then she told me it was here in town and would be delivered today. I asked why it wasn't delivered yesterday and she said it "got in town in the afternoon Tuesday", which was a lie I called her on. I told her to look at the tracking as it got scanned at 9:15 a.m. Tuesday, and my post office is 3 miles away! It should have gone there Tuesday, and been delivered Wednesday! She assured me the package would be delivered today, and I told her I wasn't all that sure myself. It did get to my local post office, so we'll see about today. It does show "out for delivery" this morning, so maybe.

Sir,
Sorry to hear all these issues you have had and are having. I have been watching this posting from the beginning and I still say you do beautiful work on your projects. I truly hope that everything is in perfect condition when it finally reaches your hands.
Good Luck and will be look forward to the finished product.

[marlinman93]

Sir,
Sorry to hear all these issues you have had and are having. I have been watching this posting from the beginning and I still say you do beautiful work on your projects. I truly hope that everything is in perfect condition when it finally reaches your hands.
Good Luck and will be look forward to the finished product.

Parts finally arrived! The medium flat rate box appears to have done as much traveling as it has, and corners were all rounded over, and sides wrinkled. But the contents were well wrapped and none were harmed at all! Ready to reassemble my Schoyen Ballard soon! I'll clean the shipping oil off and wax the parts once they're assembled as a complete Ballard rifle!




The buttplate is actually for my #3F as I wanted to change the polished steel to color cased on that rifle.

[GunnyMack]

Looks like you got some great colors!
(un)patiently waiting to see the complete rifle!

[marlinman93]

Looks like you got some great colors!
(un)patiently waiting to see the complete rifle!

I was impatient also so I reassembled the breech block. That was a real task since I haven't had a DST block apart in many years! Much harder to keep everything in place while you try to slip the block halves together! After that I spun the barrel on hand tight just to check the forearm fit. As I suspected it needed a lot more wood removed, so spent a couple hours sanding and checking until it was close. Then went after the forearm wet sanding Wipe On Poly with 320 grit. It didn't take long for the color to darken up with no stain and I'll spend the next week applying finish by wet sanding it in. But I'll get the barrel back on tomorrow and drill and tap for the forearm screw first. Then maybe get some pics as I go along.

[Pat C]

Are you going to varnish the colors?

[marlinman93]

Are you going to varnish the colors?

No, I prefer to use paste wax and buff them with a soft cloth.

[AJMD429]

All of Your posts about these guns have sure been fun to see this year! We don't have to Own something to appreciate the History. Thank You.

You're surely welcome! Good to know I'm not boring guys to death.

Definitely not bored... envious, yes... bored, no! But, don't let anyone's envy stop the information... I love learning about this stuff.

Projects like this are cool....

Many of us lack the time or money (....really - the ABILITY.....) to do such things, but we ceretainly enjoy doing them vicariously...!

[marlinman93]

Assembled the Ballard, but forearm needs lots more coats of Wipe In Poly to make it match the buttstock. Just wanted to see it all together first!




There is a dovetail filler on the barrel for a machine rest it once had. Have to decide if I'll make up a rest to fit this dovetail, or just touch up the filler and leave it. I have a Pope barrel rest I might just clamp over it also to hide the dovetail.

[Pat C]

Looks like happy ending , I like it.

[marlinman93]

Looks like happy ending , I like it.

Probably a couple weeks needed to finish up the forearm finish.
I also need to do some brazing on that brass single prong buttplate as the edges are just shy of the wood. I need to build up both sides a little over 1/16" per side if I want to use it and have it look good. I'll put the hard rubber buttplate on for now.

[Pat C]

Saw this barrel Pacific 38-55 looks like bore is nice with a little cleaning.

[marlinman93]

I have 4 spare Ballard barrels currently. One .32-40 half octagon that's blued and like new. One .40-63 Everlasting that's a heavy full round, with a bore that's not great. A .38-55 full octagon with a great bore. And the half octagon .38-55 that came on this action.

[.45colt]

Things are Looking Great! can't wait till it's done.

[6pt-sika]

Out of curiosity do you have any Ballards that left the factory with checkered wood ?