In the spirit of a more active forum, I thought I'd start this post.
Just returned from the Colorado collector gun show, and as always it was a treat to see so much great stuff there! My legs are wiped out from 3 days of walking, but it was well worth it to me!
I picked up a couple more Ballard Schuetzen rifles at the show, and seems like I always find much more there than my gun fund can bear! But tickled to be able to bring a little home for my collection.
This year I found a Stevens-Pope barreled Ballard with 30" half octagon .32-40 barrel. Birdseye maple stocks, palm rest, grip adapter, JW Fecker Cleveland 6x scope, and Schoyen style Swiss buttplate.
The barrel was never cut for either dovetail, and the Stevens-Pope rollstamp was moved to the 45 degree flat, so it was always setup to be a scoped barrel.
The other Ballard is a Marlin Ballard #6 Schuetzen. Pretty stock in every feature except the palm rest plate, and a 32" heavy half octagon barrel marked GEO C SCHOYEN. It has a couple minor stock chips on the forearm I need to repair, but otherwise a very nice gun. It's equipped with the early Ballard German style heavy buttplate, with "pick" as the top prong. These buttplates are flat bottomed, so the perch belly stock is also flat bottom. The #6 Schuetzen is a pistol gripped forged frame like the Pope Ballard is, but the #6 is the heavier flat side receiver, and Marlin put straight gripp
ed stocks on these pistol gripped frames. A nice look I think.
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I apologize for my poor picture taking skills!