Modern Ballard Rolling Block?

[sass2924]

Trying to recall if they made a rolling block design when they were in business?

[Clarence]

Cody Ballard, if that is who you referred to, made Ballard reproductions and Winchester High Wall reproductions.

Clarence

[monkeyboy]

I do remember seeing a full page ad for them in the Black Powder Cartridge News,sometime in the mid to late 2000's.I've never seen one in the flesh though.

[nineteen76]

The answer is YES.
http://www.icollector.com/Ballard-Rifle ... _i12220098

I recall one in 50/90 also.

[sass2924]

In trying to ID a rifle. There’s no markings other than caliber marked on the bottom of the barrel a serial number on the bottom tang. Nothing under the forearm or top tang. Wood to metal fit is great, extended lower tang, octogoned front of Receiver and case colored frame is vibrant so not think it was something some one slapped together in their garage. Thought it might be a Hardcastle but called and he does not mark serial numbers in that fashion. Checked into Lonestar and his serial numbers did not go as high as this.

[SSShooter]

Neil Rice did a number of stocks for WY Armory (I had a Low Wall he did) and the wood & work was easily the best I've owned. You may have a rifle he did for them.

[Ray Newman]

Difficult to say who did the work without any stamps/markings.

Wonder if it is an original rifle that was rebuilt by a skilled gunsmith? At one time, I considered building a rifle on a smokeless Remington rolling block action. I talked to the late Dave Higginbotham at Lone Star and John King of (King Machine, Kila Mt) about the work. Both said it could be done and it would look like a newly manufactured rifle with the original serial number. John King rebuilt my Sharps-Borchardt without applying any stamps that he did the work. Have no idea what Dave Higginbotham did when he rebuilt/refurbished an original rolling block.

A shot in the dark, but post your query and any pictures on the American Single Shot Rifle Association board:
http://www.assra.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl

[mdeland]

The 1902 Remington rolling block actions are my preferred option for a build as they represent the latest evolution of the design. I also prefer to modify them to coil springs championed by Frank DeHaas for reliability and smoothness of operation.
I have never heard of any Cody rolling block productions and would be surprised that it ever occurred.
Now that I'm getting up in years I wonder now if I have made a mistake by never signing any of the rifles I've built for the historical interest.
I know I have long stated "If only this gun could talk" and never thinking that they can to a certain extent if a name and date were stamped or engraved on or under the stock.
Actually a simple piece of folded paper put under the butt plate with the builders name , date of manufacture and original owner would be fabulous to find long after they are gone.
I think I'm going to start doing this from now on as there are quite a few builds of bolt guns and single shots out their now that I should have signed when starting this journey 38 years ago.
I have never cared about fame but to pass on the history of the arm to the successive owner/care takers, would be of great interest value for those gun enthusiasts yet to be born that might in the future procure the guns for themselves and wonder about it's origin.

[Michael Johnson]

Ray, when Dave Higginbotham built my 50-90 on an original 1869 Egyptian action, he put no marks other than 50-90 on the Green Mountain barrel. The action still had it original serial number.There are no markings on the inside of the forearm whatsoever. This rifle had an original action that had been engraved, new breechblock and trigger, new barrel and wood stock from Treebone. There is a photo on the Treebone website.

[Woody]

Back to the original question.

Did Ballard build a Rolling Block?

The answer is yes.

They also built at least one Remington Hepburn. The did advertise both and took orders. I ordered a Hepburn, but they failed to deliver as they slowly spiraled away. They also would do repair and rebuilt on just about any other firearm. I shot my first 5 in a row chicken with a Cody Ballard in 45-90. I currently still own and shoot a Cody High Wall. Just shot it yesterday at Friendship.

Any documented Cody Roller and or Hepburn would be a very rare bird indeed. Several years ago the former owner of Cody Ballard, (during the time they were marketing the Rollers and Hepburns), asked me if I had one of the rollers they had made. He didn't say why he was looking for one, but he did say the Ballard experience took a large pile of money and turned it into a much smaller one. Not a direct quote, but a summery of the conversation.

Woody

[SSShooter]

From one of the former Cody Ballard gunsmiths, "The folks in Cody were working on making rolling blocks. They were going to use castings and the castings they had weren't very good. A couple of rifles were built but required a great deal of reworking on the castings. The project was abandoned."

[MLV]

I had one of those Ballard RBs here for awhile. Got photos of it around here somewhere.

[mdeland]

So Rolling block guns from Cody were never actually in production but a few protoypes were put together and then production stalled?
Want to get my facts straight as this is the first I have ever heard of them making RBs although I have seen their High Walls.
What about the Hepburns?

[mdeland]

The 1902s were forged low carbon steel receivers and then case hardened. I would guess the Cody guns were probably investment cast of 8620 or 4140 which are the alloys used now days for that process in gun application. One of the reasons 8620 is used is because it will take a case and color nicely , still have the strength numbers for center fire cartridges.

[sass2924]

I finally got a chance to talk to the person who has this rifle. He said he bought it about 30 years ago from Cody Ballard at the Tulsa Gun Show. He doesn’t have any paperwork. There’s no makings on the rifle other than the serial number. It looks like it was built on an original rolling block action. So maybe a rolling block rebuilt by Ballard?