Falling block works

[abunaitoo]

Got it with the house I helped clean out.
Unused, never worked on.
I think the company went out of business a while ago.
Look very well made.
1" barrel thread.
Anyone know about these????
What is it worth????
A friend is interested in it.

160384

[fg-machine]

quality well made very strong action . i dont know about values . but i gave $250 quite happily for my in the white action

[swamp]

I believe the full name was Fix Falling Block Works. Saw a couple of them used when I was in gunsmithing school. Very nice solid actions. The guys that used them were quite pleased.

No idea what they are worth now.

[GOPHER SLAYER]

I have two rifles with FBW actions. They are strong and reliable actions. I wanted extra main springs just in case one broke sometime in the future. I called the company in Michigan that makes them and had the springs in Ca in five days. I don't know if they make other parts or not.

[Bent Ramrod]

I believe that is the FBW Model "H" action. Falling Block Works was located in Troy, Michigan, but they apparently fell into the practice of putting the names of other small Michigan towns on the receivers. I have a Model "S" with "Maybee Michigan" on it and it looks like yours says "Rochester, Michigan," my old stomping ground.

The Fix Brothers seem to have dropped Model H production pretty early, concentrating on the models that looked more like High Walls and Stevens 44-1/2's. They seemed to be trying for a sort of "Sharps" look in the Model H, but it wound up being less eye appealing than the later models; maybe that was why it was discontinued early.

Internally, they are all the same design, which is a good one, simple and rugged. It will make up into a rifle of whatever caliber anybody would want to shoot, but the lack of a tang would mean complications if a vernier sight for a black powder cartridge rifle is contemplated.

I met a guy at the Lassen College Color Casehardening class three or four years ago who was from Michigan, worked for the Fix Bros. as a kid and was thinking of reviving the company as a retirement career. He was experimenting with color casehardening a FBW receiver. Haven't heard anything since, though.

I haven't seen a FBW action loose for sale in a long time. IIRC, the last one had $500 on it, but nobody was fighting over it. That was the "K" action; looked like a pistol caliber size High Wall, very cute. You ought to check Gunbroker for auction prices.

[Mitch]

This is the info I have from 2013>at that time you could still get any of there 4 actions.i never did get back with them for an order who knows.If I rember right the prices were from 650 to 900. I have the flyer they sent me someplace.

Leo Fix
231-590-7391
lfix@torchlake.com (wlmailhtml:{D1981A16-623E-421E-8C54-50C574741E45}mid://00000010/!x-usc:mailto:lfix@torchlake.com)

[Idaho Sharpshooter]

I would be very happy to buy that from you for $400 or thereabouts and shipping if it were for sale.

[ascast]

I would be very happy to buy that from you for $400 or thereabouts and shipping if it were for sale.

yup ! maybe $600 if I was in buying position ( with my bank )

[15meter]

Me and digging up old posts, anyone have any more information on these actions?

Heard a stunningly substantial rumor, as in buddy who had eyes on the stash of a BIG pile of these actions.

I've seen one in my life, it was several decades ago at a gun show.

Apparently they were made a mile and a quarter west of where I was born and raised. Never knew that until 2 weeks ago.

I'd be interested in any users and if they are still happy with them.

[koger]

Well I have one, a custom rig. It is in 30/40AI, has a tapered octagon 26" barrel, beautiful blue and feathered walnut, with a Rigby style buttplate, checkered steel. The trigger breaks at under 2#. It also came with a Douglass heavy half octagon/round barrel in 25/20 Single shot, 26" with a flat 3" bagrider walnut forearm. The 30/40 shoots bullets 170-210 grs with great accuracy, and the 25/20 will shoot tiny little groups at 100 yds. I have scope mounts, and it wears a Weaver 4x16x44 duplex reticle. I was king of reluctant to buy the rig, but am sure glad I did.

[Bent Ramrod]

Frank deHaas reviewed the FBW actions in his books Single Shot Actions—Their Design And Construction and Mr. Single-Shot’s Book Of Gunsmithing Ideas.

The one I have is the Model S, which has the outside look of the Stevens action. The Models J and L look like Winchester Highwalls, and the Model K looks like a miniature Highwall, suitable for pistol and small rifle cartridges. The Model H has a Sharps-type lever and looks kind of ungainly, at least to my eyes.

They all have the same internal mechanism, which is unrefined but very good, simple and rugged. I barreled mine to .25-35 in my salad days, and back then tried to load it to .250 Savage or .257 Roberts performance. No doubt I did; the primers were flattened to where I could barely see the line between the primer and pocket, and the firing pin dimple was barely there. But the gun fired and extracted without a bobble, the primers didn’t puncture or loosen and the shells were reusable. The action parts are very hard and tough (deHaas noted this too), the firing pin is bushed and gas-proof, and mine took the youthful excess of my anything-goes reloading philosophy in stride.

I don’t do such crazy stuff anymore, at least deliberately, having miraculously survived to a somewhat excessive but more responsible maturity, but the action is certainly a good and safe one for any shoulder fired cartridge up to .45 caliber.

[15meter]

Well I have one, a custom rig. It is in 30/40AI, has a tapered octagon 26" barrel, beautiful blue and feathered walnut, with a Rigby style buttplate, checkered steel. The trigger breaks at under 2#. It also came with a Douglass heavy half octagon/round barrel in 25/20 Single shot, 26" with a flat 3" bagrider walnut forearm. The 30/40 shoots bullets 170-210 grs with great accuracy, and the 25/20 will shoot tiny little groups at 100 yds. I have scope mounts, and it wears a Weaver 4x16x44 duplex reticle. I was king of reluctant to buy the rig, but am sure glad I did.

Was it completely smithed by Fix? I'm curious how many are out there. One brother passed away in 2020, he was 80 when he passed away.

I hardly knew him, used to chat with his dad at the local flour mill in the 70's, early 80's when we were waiting in line to get our trucks unloaded. The flour mill offered free storage if you didn't want to sell off the tailgate.

Sold 4-5 months later and you usually got a better price. If you took your wheat to a livestock feed kind of grain elevator they charged 3-6 cents a month storage. Even at that it was usually better to sell well after harvest.

Just a bit of farmer trivia mixed in with the gun stuff.

Thread Drift!!!!!!!!

[Jedman]

I know there were several models made with the same basic action. I see them now and then and the last one I seen for sale was a year and a half ago at a local gun shop and it was a basic plain model in 308 Win. with straight grained walnut and they were asking $ 800. But like Ruger no. 1’s and Win. 1885’s they seem to go up every week and they are a nice rifle.

Jedman

[HARRYMPOPE]

Well I have one, a custom rig. It is in 30/40AI, has a tapered octagon 26" barrel, beautiful blue and feathered walnut, with a Rigby style buttplate, checkered steel. The trigger breaks at under 2#. It also came with a Douglass heavy half octagon/round barrel in 25/20 Single shot, 26" with a flat 3" bagrider walnut forearm. The 30/40 shoots bullets 170-210 grs with great accuracy, and the 25/20 will shoot tiny little groups at 100 yds. I have scope mounts, and it wears a Weaver 4x16x44 duplex reticle. I was king of reluctant to buy the rig, but am sure glad I did.

who did you steal that from?
ha...glad u like it

[koger]

Thank you again, love the thing.