Ballard .22 Schuetzen

[BPCR Bill]

Here's my little target 22. It's an original Ballard action with a Winchester M52 target barrel. The action had been modified from a centerfire to a rimfire sometime in the dim past. I sent a nice piece of maple to Paul Shuttleworth to have shaped into a Schuetzen style stock. Sights consist of a Pope style Schuetzen peep (reproduction), a Lyman 17 front sight with a Wittek extended light shade. The scope is a Fecker 15X target scope. Schoyen style palm rest and buttplate. I still have to send the buttplate off for case color hardening. I just had Dave Casey at Rocky Mountain Cartridge go through the action and tighten it up and install a new hammer. Trigger pull is a crisp 2 pounds. I wanted to convert it to double set triggers, but that was going to be cost prohibitive. It's a sweet shooter.

Regards,
Bill

[Tom-ADC]

Now that shipmate is a handsome rifle, very well thought out and finished..

[BPCR Bill]

Thanks Tom, and it shoots better than I do.

[Tom-ADC]

Soon as I get my Sharps dialed in, I'd like to have something like that, our club shoots those once a month.

[BPCR Bill]

Tom, get ahold of Dave Casey, proprietor of Rocky Mountain Cartridge in Cody, WY. Or you can call Kieth Kilbey at Wyoming Armory in Cody. Both those fellas understand the Schuetzen rifle and can build a rifle off your action or theirs. They both were involved with Ballard Arms when it was still located in Cody. Mine is a .22 LR but they can build them on some of the traditional cartridges such as the 32-40. The Ballard action has it's quirks, but it's a fine rifle in it's own right and alot of the old time Schuetzen marksmen used them extensively, along with the Winchester model 85 single shot. Dave repaired this rifle for me, but he built an 85 Winchester 45-70 for me several years back and it is a sweetheart. I nearly fell over when I walked in the shop to pick it up. I had Earl Hines, also of Cody, do the traditional Winchester Spade Point Checkering on that one, and it is one of the nicest works of checkering I have ever seen. Anyway, just a few craftsmen to keep in mind if you decide to get a Schuetzen rifle.

Regards,
Bill

[6pt-sika]

VEry nice I like maple stocked rifles !

[BPCR Bill]

Well fellas, I got it to the range and gave it a workout. It hasn't lost a bit of it's charm. Posted is a photo of my best target, 5 shots, 50 yards off the bench. Getting the fouling just right, getting re-aquainted with the whole rifle (I hadn't shot it in over a year). 5 shots extreme measure is .231" center to center. Now for the sad part. My nearest gun club (50 miles away) that actually hosted Schuetzenfests has ceased doing that after 25 years. The match director and his assistant said that they had been running it the entire time and no one wanted to step up to the plate and take over, so they just opted to shut it down. The nearest places I have to shoot that discipline now are over 200 miles away. Oh well, I guess I can scrounge up a postal match here and there. The ammunition is Wolf Match Target, made in Germany.

[Herb in Pa]

Nice shooting and a fine rifle as well.............