When I got it home I quickly grabbed some acetone in the garage and rubbed a spot over the caliber marking on the barrel, to see for sure what the caliber was? I knew it was .40 something, but unsure which .40? It turned out to be .40-85 Ballard Everlasting! A very rare caliber for Ballards and first I've owned.
Bad pic, but it was a pitiful looking finish:
![Image](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v691/marlinguy/DSCF5123.jpg)
You can see here better what the finish looked like around the spot I cleaned. Can also see what the cleaning revealed underneath!
![Image](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v691/marlinguy/DSCF5120.jpg)
Five hours of cleaning with the wood removed. Using acetone and bronze wool. Had to clean a little just to get it apart, as it was really stuck together! But as I cleaned I got pretty excited at what started to show! An almost perfect Ballard Pacific with close to 100% rust bluing, and nice case colors!
![Image](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v691/marlinguy/DSCF5125.jpg)
![Image](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v691/marlinguy/DSCF5127.jpg)
Has a Ballard combination front sight, and a longrange vernier tang sight; plus the standard barrel buckhorn sight.
![Image](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v691/marlinguy/DSCF5128.jpg)
![Image](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v691/marlinguy/DSCF5131.jpg)
![Image](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v691/marlinguy/DSCF5130.jpg)
Had to split the breech blocks to clean inside, and stone the full cock notch. Hammer was so light I could lightly bump the buttplate on the floor and drop the hammer. It's safe now, and wont drop on it's own.
Internally it looks like it was made last week. Everything as new inside Never seen an original Ballard Pacific in this shape, so I was surprised when I saw the cleaning rod thimbles are also case colored. Have had several average or well worn Pacifics, and always thought the bluing had worn off. But these are case colored like receiver and lever. So learned something new about them!