The Ballard is a #4 Perfection model, with the .50-70 caliber 30" full octagon barrel. The #4 was the only Ballard ever offered in .50-70, and I've never seen one in my years of collecting. I talked with John Dutcher at the Denver show years ago about this gun, and he said he also had never seen one. In his book on Ballard history he mentions that the .50-70 was already becoming obsolete when Ballard production started at Marlin, and he felt very few were produced.
![Image](https://i.imgur.com/CQZepLkl.jpg)
The most interesting part of the .50 caliber Ballard is it's barrel. Marlin didn't make .50 caliber barrels, so they purchased barrels for these guns from C. Sharps Rifle Co. at the time. So instead of this Ballard having typical Ballard rifling, it has Sharps rifling!
These #4's in .50 caliber were only offered the first year in 1875, so like some other early Ballard rifles, Marlin built these guns using a lot of parts given to them when Brown Mfg. Co. went bankrupt. Schoverling and Daley owned the Ballard patents, and along with the parts given to Marlin, a good number of employees of Brown also joined Marlin. With Brown Mfg. employees and Marlin employees, these guns got a lot of parts from booth companies mixed together. This particular "hybrid" uses Brown Mfg. reverse curve lever, hammer, trigger, and deep crescent buttplate. Receiver is a forged Marlin item, as is the wood. The breechblock is Marlin, but of their early design, so likely a Brown that was milled to Marlin style.
![Image](https://i.imgur.com/jDx2UFIl.jpg)
![Image](https://i.imgur.com/G3p4vCHl.jpg)
This my later #4 for comparison:
![Image](https://i.imgur.com/QyCl8Fal.jpg)
You can see the hammer and trigger are both shorter on the Brown parts. The firing pin screw is not drilled through on the early breechblock, but is on the later Marlin.
The bore on this rifle looks as new! Bright and shiny, and very little use from what I see. The action is the same, with a very tight lock up, and great fit. When I got the gun home I tore it down to inspect, and it appeared to have never been completely apart before. I cleaned and oiled it, and reassembled the gun. This gun has seen a lot of carry wear! The forearm is worn down a good 1/8" or more between the forearm screw and receiver from riding across a saddle, or just being carried there. The external finish is nearly all gone, but no dings or damage, just carried until it has no finish.
I dug through my old Ballard parts and found a period correct early Marlin tang sight to mount. The plug screws were frozen in the receiver, so I used my left hand drill bits to drill them out, and the last size caught both screws and spun them free! Mounted up the tang sight, and the patina matched the gun well.
![Image](https://i.imgur.com/IvVidUVl.jpg?1)
Ordered up some .50-70 brass, dies, and bullets. I've never owned this caliber, so didn't want to buy a mold until I see what it likes. But if it's fun to shoot, I can see myself shooting it a lot, as there's no minty finish to worry about.