Pope and Schoyen Ballards

[marlinman93]

Couple Ballard rifles I picked up at the CGCA show in Denver. First is a custom offhand rifle with a Stevens-Pope 30" half octagon .32-40 barrel. The rifle scope is a 6x JW Fecker built in the late 1920's when Fecker was in Cleveland, Oh. The stocks are birdseye maple, with Schoyen buttplate and a palmrest with relocation adapter to get it closer to the shooter. It also is fitted with a small grip adapter on the loop lever.

The barrel has no sight dovetails, and has the rollstamp on the 45 flat.



















The other is a standard JM Marlin Ballard with heavy flat side receiver in the #6 Schuetzen model. It has an early Germanic style buttplate with the "pick" for a top prong, but it's actually a threaded screw to hold the nickeled buttplate. Typical features of a #6 with ball and spur lever, straight grip stock on a pistol grip frame. Heavy 32" half octagon Schoyen marked barrel in .32-40 caliber. Base for palmrest is threaded 5/16-NC, but missing rest. No sights, and D&T for scope bases.























Has the flat bottom stock of early heavy buttplate models:





Nice to get a couple in calibers I already load for, so no buying dies, molds, cases, etc., etc.

[MT Chambers]

GORGEOUS is all I can say!!!

[Reverend Al]

A beautiful pair of old and classic single shots from a bygone era ... I have such HUGE Ballard envy right now!

[marlinman93]

Thanks guys! I love Ballard rifles, and especially those by Schoyen, Pope, etc.

[hawkenhunter50]

Thanks guys! I love Ballard rifles, and especially those by Schoyen, Pope, etc.

Very nice thanks for sharing.

[blackbahart]

very nice pair of new to you ole rifles .

[Ballistics in Scotland]

They are both beautiful rifles. But it pains me to say that despite the likely superiority of the Pope-barrelled rifle in workmanship, rarity and wood (Nice work, Mother Nature!), the standard Marlin-Ballard is the more versatile of the two. The perch-belly stock and small hooked buttplate of the former about confine it to the conventional scheutzen standing position, with rifle supported on the chest and upper arm.

On my projects list is a Francotte Martini heavy-barrelled action which probably lay unfinished in factory stocks since some idiot started a war. Making a Martini breechblock subtly different from the British military version has been the bottleneck. It whispers "I want to be a Swiss three-position rifle when I grow up", but I was disappointed to find just how small the excellent repro buttplates stocked by Track of the Wolf actually are. I suppose only being suitable for the intended application isn't a thing to cast blame at.

[marlinman93]

They are both beautiful rifles. But it pains me to say that despite the likely superiority of the Pope-barrelled rifle in workmanship, rarity and wood (Nice work, Mother Nature!), the standard Marlin-Ballard is the more versatile of the two. The perch-belly stock and small hooked buttplate of the former about confine it to the conventional scheutzen standing position, with rifle supported on the chest and upper arm.
.

Absolutely correct! A schuetzen rifle is a dedicated offhand rifle. I simply love the looks of them, and I shoot them off the bench or cross sticks with no problem myself. It takes a different shooting position to shoot a Swiss buttplate off sticks or bench, but it isn't hard or painful. And it's a lot easier to shoot this style of gun offhand well than it is to shoot a crescent or shotgun buttplate gun offhand.
But the #6 pictured is a factory original standard model. Only change on it is the Schoyen barrel and the base for a palm rest.

[marlinman93]

Had a few chips missing from the #6 Schoyen Ballard's forearm. I really am not fond of fixing little slivers, and big chips are much easier! But I carved up some scrap walnut and fit it into the areas missing wood. Then mixed up some two part clear epoxy and dyed it brown. Got the pieces in place overnight, and sanded them to final shape today. Then while the finish was drying I grabbed a 5/16" bolt and made a stem for the missing palm rest. Grabbed more scrap wood and carved out a palm rest as close to Schoyen style as I could. Fitted to my hand, and felt good on the gun. Did a quick sand job and applied some WOP to seal it. Will give it a few more coats after it's dried well.



Once the finish on the palm rest has cured I'll add a little reddish wood dye to match the red hues of the stock and forearm.

[woodbutcher]

Very nice work Sir.Plus two sweet rifles.for many years of smiles.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

[Green Frog]

How the mighty have fallen... a self respecting Ballard collector letting a couple of messed up, non-original examples into his collection. Imagine, a rifle with an aftermarket barrel, in fact two of them. Oh the shame of it all. Quick Vall, you should pack them up and send them to me to reestablish the purity of your collection. Don't thank me, that's what friends are for!

Your Phriendly 'Phibian

[marlinman93]

How the mighty have fallen... a self respecting Ballard collector letting a couple of messed up, non-original examples into his collection. Imagine, a rifle with an aftermarket barrel, in fact two of them. Oh the shame of it all. Quick Vall, you should pack them up and send them to me to reestablish the purity of your collection. Don't thank me, that's what friends are for!

Your Phriendly 'Phibian

They'll go well with others I have with Winchester barrels, and Zettler Bros. barrels Charlie! So far no in fighting, or noises coming from my safes!
But I do appreciate your most generous offer, and if things get noisy in the safe I'll be contacting you first!

[marlinman93]

Got the shine knocked off the palm rest I built. Now it needs to cure for a few weeks before I can buff it up to match the stock finish.
Also dug into my scope bases and found two that fit the D&T holes in the Schoyen barrel. Mounted up the Belding & Mull telescope I had sitting in the safe.

[Reverend Al]

It's looking better and better all the time ... again I have some serious "Ballard envy" happening right now!

[marlinman93]

It's looking better and better all the time ... again I have some serious "Ballard envy" happening right now!

Thanks Al! If I can ever locate inserts for my spare windage Ballard globe front sight, I'll take that globe off and install my windage globe instead.

[marlinman93]

Found some MVA Win. style inserts and a spirit level clip in my sight parts. The MVA insert needed a small amount of material removed from the base and it fit right in the Ballard globe sight! So it's on now and should make shooting much better with the windage adjustment!

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Had a few chips missing from the #6 Schoyen Ballard's forearm. I really am not fond of fixing little slivers, and big chips are much easier! But I carved up some scrap walnut and fit it into the areas missing wood. Then mixed up some two part clear epoxy and dyed it brown. Got the pieces in place overnight, and sanded them to final shape today. Then while the finish was drying I grabbed a 5/16" bolt and made a stem for the missing palm rest. Grabbed more scrap wood and carved out a palm rest as close to Schoyen style as I could. Fitted to my hand, and felt good on the gun. Did a quick sand job and applied some WOP to seal it. Will give it a few more coats after it's dried well.



Once the finish on the palm rest has cured I'll add a little reddish wood dye to match the red hues of the stock and forearm.

That is exactly the right way to deal with chipped wood. I've never in my life found a filler or filler stain which looks exactly right, and even if others wouldn't see it easily, you would know. I find stains a bit unpredictable too, and very likely to overemphasise the pores and end grain. I'd use red oil for the early stages of oil polishing. I'm sure you can buy it, but it's just as good if you leave boiled linseed oil for several months to soak as much alkanet root chips as it will cover. It should be available on eBay, but you need the deep red variety. There are paler alkanet roots used as a food additive. The original palm rest might have been hinged, but I can't see recoil being a problem with a heavy .32-40.

For those interested in such work, I have just received pieces of an almost unknown wood for stocks, but one with highly suitable properties, and relatively inexpensive. The snag is that it is totally non-authentic for any American firearm. It is the London plane, a hybrid uniquely resistant to the smog you see in Sherlock Holmes movies, which is found almost nowhere else and is seldom available except when some of the trees which line the streets become dangerous.

[marlinman93]

I use wood tints purchased at my local Woodcrafters store. They are designed to go on after all the sanding and finish work is done, and work very well indeed. I have various browns and reds and they aren't cheap at $22 for a 2 oz. bottle, but they go a long way as they need to be diluted. I keep little dropper bottles of the diluted solution on my bench and put a few drops of whatever color I want to match on a rag. Then I rub in the color to match adjacent wood. It's so thin and translucent that it wont hide the grain, but will tint the wood and the colored epoxy to match.
The Ballard #6 has a reddish brown color to existing wood, so once it cures I'll mix up a few drops of red and brown tint, and then dilute it and see how close I can get the final finish. It's pretty good now, but needs to darken, and be a little red too.
I am like you. I despise wood fillers on any wood repair! It takes a long time to carve out a small piece of wood, and sometimes I even take more wood out if it needs it for strength. But it's the only way to get a strong, good looking repair and not make a new forearm or buttstock.