doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Fun with Brown Rifles.

Steve,

The barrel on my Krag is 25" measured down the bore to the bolt face.

I just finished "Gitche Gumee Gun" Well Done!

Nice PAcific Brent! Looks like it's been well cared for, and still able to go out hunting!

Vall, here is another ballard for you. Along with a few other of my browner guns.




The top rifle is a Cogwell damascus barreled rifle about 56 or 58 caliber. Not in the best of condidtion, but definitely shootable.

The next is a god-knows-who muzzleloader about 32 caliber that I really like even though everything about it is bad. Hell the tang is even narrower (much) on the top than on the bottom. God couldn't inlet that thing properly. The lock is total junk and the barrel is rotted but I love the old ash stock and I am seriously contemplating rescue. I think a .45 or .50 caliber reline might be doable. Definitely not worthy, but possibly doable.

Then there is the #3 Ballard Gallery rifle. All original except the bore was rotted so it was relined and the rear sight was missing so Roy made a drop dead ringer for an original - except for the vernier scale that I asked him to put a on it.

Last, my old Hopkins and Allen 722 take down. I loved that rifle when I was a kid, although it did not have the forearm then. I always believed that if I could see a target, I could hit it with that rifle - though it might have taken me a box or two of ammo. I eventually wore it out, so it was relined and a friend discovered an original forearm for it and grabbed it for me.

If I live to be 200 I will never be able to take good pictures, but here's a couple from my collection anyway!
1893 Marlin, with Marlin #2 scope mounted in Hepburn sight holes. Caliber .32HPS


These are all Ballard #3's of different variations:

Man... So THATs where all the good single shot rifles are! No wonder I never find any lurking in the back rack at the gunshops...

Here's a few more. The top one is my low wall test mule, in its latest iteration of back-bored 22LR bbl and (salvaged from the scrap heap) speedlock hammer. The SST and kicker are made of unobtanium, in a secret skunkworks, and the mule sometimes sports a special unobtanium hammer as well. If I told you how accurate it is then I'd hafta kill you.(G) Besides, nobody but
Brent would believe me anyway.

This particular receiver was obtained with a broken-off upper tang and so I made it the subject of an article on how to construct a jig and weld the tang back on and ensure the proper location. Actually completed about 90% of the article when my publishing plans changed...

I've had lots of fun with this rifle in many forms & many projects over the years, and hope to continue.

I've also had lots of fun with the lower rifle(?) as well. Just picture it: at a series of gun show setups over the years with my geezer buddies; now just how many different utterly outlandish and outrageously provocative stories do you think 3 evil old men (Good Ole Boys, too!) can concoct to sandbag the unwary? I leave it up to your imagination!



Regards, Joe

They don't get any browner than that bottom one.

Jerry

Hey Joe,
I have the cousin to your Hi Wall! Mine is the very rare, early prototype 1881 Marlin, designed to shoot around corners. Unfortunately it didn't pass muster at the 1882 military trials, and was tossed behind the armory, where it was found many years later and rescued by a friend of mine!


Once I clean it up and reline the barrel, I hope to submit it again in future trials!

Joe, I love that low wall, but the high wall is awesome. BTW, we are debating the most "best" singleshot .22 action on the WSU forum. Some folks seem to think Ballard, some think low wall and some (believe it or not) think Martini.

Brent

Holy, Hi-wall, Joe--that "brownie" is the pots UNDER the pits! I guess that's why original Hi-walls are now worth "Dick and Craig" prices now....sad sight--I don't like "safe queens" much, but that is carrying "benign neglect" a bit too far!