Red Willow Ballard 22lr

[patchbox]

Picked up a Red Willow Ballard a couple of months ago - bought it from the consignment section of Buffalo Arms. Apparently it was a prototype built by Red Willow but Red Willow never went into production on the 22lr Ballard as far as I know. Took it to the range today for the first time and it shot really well - did not make any adjustments to the sights - it has a tang sight and a front blade sight - don't know what it does as far as vertical stringing but was hitting a 1" wide x 6" long steel dinger with consistency. Very pretty little rifle. Does anybody have any information on this little Red Willow Ballard? After I purchased it I have color cased the butt plate, polished and re-blued the screws and re-finished the stock and forend. Great little 22lr single shot.

Eric

[patchbox]

Sorry, don't know what happened but looks like I posted twice. More pics.

[Ray Newman]

Be still my heart! I like Ballards or as one here previously called Ballards -- East Coast Parlor Guns.

[patchbox]

[pacecars]

Try posting on levergun scoundrels in their Ballard site.

[Glen Ring]

NICE !!!!

[patchbox]

Thanks Glenn! It’s a very nice little single shot. Took a chance on it as pictures don’t always do justice to the condition.

Eric

[Chief Beck]

That is one nice .22! I have never warmed up to Ballards but I would sure love to have this one!

Dennis

[patchbox]

Thanks Dennis!

The pics were screenshots from the Buffalo Arms website. Since then I have color cased the buttplate, polished and re-blued all the external screws, re-finished stock/forearm, and re-crowned the barrel with a Manson re-crowning tool. I have purchased various single shot 22lr’s before and they all seem to have a barrel liner - even the newer ones so I know that they didn’t have a liner put in - in other words they were manufactured with a barrel liner - cheaper for manufacturers to do this. This little Ballard does not as when re-crowning you can tell by a small circular line indicating where the liner diameter is. Apparently it was a prototype and a one-off as they never went into production for the 22lr. Looks to have cut rifling - it holds horizontal very well - don’t know about vertical yet because I was shooting a 1” x 6” long steel dinger.

[22Ballard]

That looks like a center-fire action converted to rimfire. Rimfire Ballards do not have firing pin retaining screws in the breechblock. The rimfire firing pins look like a blade, that slide in a groove in the breechblock.

[George Babits]

Does it say where it was made?? I seem to recall that originally Red Willow was in Stevensville, Montana, and the guy running it was a brother (or cousin or??) to Argus Barker who was making the Borchardt Sharps about the same time. I think Red Willow may have sold out to the Ballard Rifle Company. All this would have been back in the mid-1980s. Darn nice looking rifle.

George

[22Ballard]

I believe Cody.

[patchbox]

There are no markings on the rifle to indicate where it was manufactured or who manufactured it. The only number visible is underneath the receiver by the forearm - it is stamped “1990”. The seller claimed that it was a prototype made by Red Willow. That’s the only info I have on this rifle. An internet search shows that Red Willow manufactured rifles in various centerfire calibers - I could find nothing that indicated Red Willow ever sold or produced 22lr chamberings unless they produced these on request. Yes, it is a very pretty little rifle and shoots very well.

[patchbox]

The following was info posted in a thread about this rifle on the Levergun Scoundrels forum:
Red Willow Ballard rifles were owned and built by Don Barker of Stevensville, Montana. Don started the company in 1991, and made some pretty nice copies of the Marlin Ballard. I doubt yours is a prototype, and likely just one of the Ballard rifles built by Don at Red Willow.
Don moved Red Willow to Cody, Wy. in 1993, and began production there. He sold the company to Ballard Rifle Co. LLC in 1997, and they continued on until 2008 when they sold. The estimates run at less than 200 rifles built under the Red Willow name, with the highest known number so far being "#169. If yours is higher, it will raise the known high number.
Red Willow Ballard rifles were a very dedicated copy of the Marlin Ballard design, but unfortunately not close enough to interchange parts with the originals, so the owners of originals were disappointed they couldn't buy Red Willow parts to fix their old guns. All that changed when Don sold in 1997 as the BRC LLC made exacting copies of original Marlin Ballards, with perfect parts interchangeability. The BRC Ballard was as good as any Marlin built, and better quality of modern materials. Unfortunately when they sold to the new owner in Michigan in 2008 the company failed within a year. So this era of exquisite clones ended, and nobody has picked up the torch to do them again

PS-Your gun is an example of Red Willow's deluxe #3 Gallery rifle. With the set triggers, and deluxe checkered stocks being upgrades from his usual plain stocked #3 Gallery. It has the gallery mid range graduated tang sight, instead of the higher grade vernier tang sight. Your tang sight was typical on original Gallery models.

[patchbox]

More info from Levergun Scoundrels on Red Willow Ballards:

The number was stamped under the receiver, by the forearm as yours is. What I'm unsure of is what number Don started with? Many custom makers (and some factories) don't start at 001 for serial numbers, so it often makes it look like they built more than they did. So if Don started at 1900, yours might be #90. It is possible yours was built before he began the production in Montana in 1991, and maybe it is 1990? But I've seen a few of his earliest Ballard rifles, and they certainly weren't as nicely finished as yours appears to be. The first rifles had very plain wood, less than great wood to metal fit, and not extremely nice case colors. All below what I'd accept personally.
I was offered an early Red Willow at a shop here in town back in the mid 1990's for $850, and passed on it because of the poor workmanship. Just wasn't up to Marlin standards, and not like later red Willows and BRC rifles.
Speaking of Ballard Rifle Co. in Cody. The staff assembled there to produce the new Ballard rifles was likely the finest custom gunsmiths in the USA at the time! I doubt anyone will ever put together such a wonderful group of talent ever again! Guys like Ron Long, Neal Rice, Keith Kilby, Dave Casey, Steve Garby, etc. were all talented enough to probably build their own Ballard from scratch. Having all that talent was why the Ballard rifles they made were taken to the highest level possible during their tenure.