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Thread: Darr Roller

  1. #1
    Boolit Master marlinman93's Avatar
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    Darr Roller

    This is one I got yesterday after a 3 hour drive each way to see it. It's a BW (Barry) Darr barreled Rolling Block, chambered in .35-40, which is a blown out .32-40 case. It is a very heavy 4.5 weight full octagon barrel that's 30" long. Also came with a Darr mold built for this rifle barrel. The barrel is marked "BW DARR" on top, and under the forearm is the barrel number, .35-40, 12-10-75, and 1:16 Twist.
    Forearm is a bit too bulbous for my taste, so it will get lightened and slimmed down. Probably remove the barrel and wood, and get the receiver color cased also to make it look better.
    Been trying to buy this rifle for almost 4 years, so it was worth the long drive. I also ended up buying a couple Ballard rifles he had, and put my name on a 1874 Sharps Gemmer rifle in .50-140 too. A huge bunch of Ballard stocks, and parts, and some neat re-decapping tools he wanted to move along also. Tools are some Simmons, a Pope, a Schoyen copy, and an oddball I'm unsure of?
    Bought three barrels for Ballard rifles too. Two are factory barrels in .22 Long, and .40-63. The 3rd is a George C Schoyen barrel in .40-50SS, and still has Schoen's traditional brown finish on the heavy 30" full round barrel.






  2. #2
    Boolit Grand Master
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    Looks like you made out great! I only met Barry late in his life, after he had retired but then decided to make moulds again, and to come back to visit his friends at Etna Green. We hit it off immediately and my only regret was having so little time to spend with him. I’m sure you’ll enjoy that roller… that’s the only one I’ve ever heard of him doing, and an odd caliber to boot! Great get, even if it’s not a Ballard!
    Froggie
    "It aint easy being green!"

  3. #3
    Boolit Master marlinman93's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Green Frog View Post
    Looks like you made out great! I only met Barry late in his life, after he had retired but then decided to make moulds again, and to come back to visit his friends at Etna Green. We hit it off immediately and my only regret was having so little time to spend with him. I’m sure you’ll enjoy that roller… that’s the only one I’ve ever heard of him doing, and an odd caliber to boot! Great get, even if it’s not a Ballard!
    Froggie
    I spoke with Barry occasionally near his last few years; both by email and phone. I actually gave him the barrel number off this Roller 3.5 years ago to see what his records showed prior to buying it back then. The whole covid thing screwed up buying this rifle for a long time, but I was tickled to see a hang tag on it when he handed it to me and it was marked with my name on it!
    Barry told me the .35-40 was his favorite chambering, and that he felt it was inherently very accurate when combined with his mold. He also told me that back in the 1970' he made many molds by recutting old molds of various makers, so he noted he'd built a mold to go with this rifle that was recut from an old mold.
    Barry also converted this roller to a speed hammer, and lightened the hammer with multiple holes to make it quicker drop. It needs one of my .045" piano wire trigger springs and then it will be perfect.

    I'm returning in the near future to purchase a gorgeous Gemmer Sharps 1874 that's been restored and restocked in high grade wood. It's a 34" heavy full octagon barrel in .50-140, and will be my first Sharps. I never cared for the big side hammers, but always wanted to own at least one.

  4. #4
    Boolit Master
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    Dang nice roller Val, another nice addition to your collection. Thanks for sharing.

  5. #5
    Boolit Master
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    Well Mr. Marlinman, Thanks for steering me into one of the deadly sins ENVY again. Do you have a sign out front that says Cool old custom built rifles welcome here? Very Nice!! What glass are you thinking about and internal or external?

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    Boolit Master
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    Score! Please share pics of the Sharps when you can…

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    Boolit Master marlinman93's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Gtek View Post
    Well Mr. Marlinman, Thanks for steering me into one of the deadly sins ENVY again. Do you have a sign out front that says Cool old custom built rifles welcome here? Very Nice!! What glass are you thinking about and internal or external?
    Scope will be external for sure, but I plan to cut the barrel for a front sight dovetail also so I can use iron sights too. Someone drilled a single tang sight hole on the top tang, and checking spacing to the stock screw it seems they spaced it to use that screw and it's Winchester spacing. So I might order or find a Winchester tang sight to put at the rear. Need to find a longer tang screw, or make one if I go that route. Or just drill and tap one more hole at 1.937" to use Remington spacing.

  8. #8
    Boolit Master marlinman93's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by HWooldridge View Post
    Score! Please share pics of the Sharps when you can…
    Might be awhile, as my allowance has to recover after getting this Roller, the two Ballards, and a bunch of Ballard parts, and tools that were all part of this package. My son inlaw is going to buy one little Ballard #3 in .22 Long, but I wont get much as I told him he could have it for $400. The other is another #3, but mostly a parts gun.
    Got a half dozen Ballard checkered buttstocks, and a bunch of re-decapping tools. One is a Pope, and others are modern copies by Jake Simmons, and a Schoyen copy by another gunsmith.
    Maybe be back in the black in a month or two, and then go pick up the gorgeous Gemmer Sharps.








  9. #9
    Boolit Master marlinman93's Avatar
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    Thanks! Needs some changes for my taste, but wont be major or tough to do.

  10. #10
    Boolit Master
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    I owned an original, heavy weight 50-90 ‘74 Sharps for several years but had to sell it when times got tight - that was over 20 years ago. Also had a 40-50 set up for target work, and a newer Shiloh 45-70. The 50-90 was heavy artillery for sure; a 50-140 is a real beast - I’d probably load it with 70 grs and a big stack of spacers to take up the space…biiiiggg cloud of white smoke!

  11. #11
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    Very nice.
    NRA Benefactor Member NRA Golden Eagle

  12. #12
    Boolit Master marlinman93's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by HWooldridge View Post
    I owned an original, heavy weight 50-90 ‘74 Sharps for several years but had to sell it when times got tight - that was over 20 years ago. Also had a 40-50 set up for target work, and a newer Shiloh 45-70. The 50-90 was heavy artillery for sure; a 50-140 is a real beast - I’d probably load it with 70 grs and a big stack of spacers to take up the space…biiiiggg cloud of white smoke!
    That's what I was thinking, and need to do a lot of research on how to reduce BP loads, and what to use to space it properly before I get it, or load for it.
    The .40-50SS is one of my favorite old cartridges, and I especially like shooting it with smokeless loads. I think it performs much better with smokeless than it did with BP. I had two Rolling Block sporting rifles in .40-50SS, but sold one original, and kept the one I built up. But I'll soon have a Ballard in .40-50SS as in the parts I just bought is a George Schoyen barrel in .40-50SS that's threaded to fit a Ballard action! I just need to look through my Ballard rifles and see which might have a less than perfect bore, and swap the Schoyen barrel on it. I've got 4 spare Ballard actions, but all are cast #2 or #3 actions, and not suitable for this barrel and cartridge.

  13. #13
    Boolit Grand Master
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    Back to Barry recutting existing moulds, I sent him a couple of old, small block moulds for small round balls which he recut to the two factory style 40 cal bullets for my 1873 Maynard. This was as he and Jim Borton were staring up B&D Moulds. Eventually, Jim bought out that generation of cherries, but I don’t know whether he’s making any now or not.

    Froggie
    "It aint easy being green!"

  14. #14
    Boolit Master marlinman93's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Green Frog View Post
    Back to Barry recutting existing moulds, I sent him a couple of old, small block moulds for small round balls which he recut to the two factory style 40 cal bullets for my 1873 Maynard. This was as he and Jim Borton were staring up B&D Moulds. Eventually, Jim bought out that generation of cherries, but I don’t know whether he’s making any now or not.

    Froggie
    I heard that Jim had retired, and not sure what he did with his cherries, or tooling?
    This mold appears to be an old Ideal, but it's had all the markings removed. Assume it was for some smaller caliber bullet, and he bored and opened it up to make the .35 chamber.

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    Boolit Blub Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang's Avatar
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    Haven’t seen a JC Devine auction tag in a bit. That’s from my neck of the woods.

  16. #16
    Boolit Grand Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by marlinman93 View Post
    I heard that Jim had retired, and not sure what he did with his cherries, or tooling?
    This mold appears to be an old Ideal, but it's had all the markings removed. Assume it was for some smaller caliber bullet, and he bored and opened it up to make the .35 chamber.
    I was able to find a couple of 32 round ball moulds that Barry used to make my moulds. He used a picture copied from ca 1885 catalog along with my bore dimensions and voila! he cut me moulds that drop bullets that are hard to distinguish from those dropped by original moulds (which I now own). He was an artist in metal.

    I haven’t heard from Jim for a couple of years (OK, several years!) and his health wasn’t all that great back then, so I am not surprised to hear he’d retired. He liked to use new, larger mould blocks than those Barry used for me. Those cherries and tools in the right hands could be absolute gold.

    Froggie
    "It aint easy being green!"

  17. #17
    Boolit Buddy FrankJD's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by marlinman93 View Post
    That's what I was thinking, and need to do a lot of research on how to reduce BP loads, and what to use to space it properly before I get it, or load for it.
    The .40-50SS is one of my favorite old cartridges, and I especially like shooting it with smokeless loads. I think it performs much better with smokeless than it did with BP. I had two Rolling Block sporting rifles in .40-50SS, but sold one original, and kept the one I built up. But I'll soon have a Ballard in .40-50SS as in the parts I just bought is a George Schoyen barrel in .40-50SS that's threaded to fit a Ballard action! I just need to look through my Ballard rifles and see which might have a less than perfect bore, and swap the Schoyen barrel on it. I've got 4 spare Ballard actions, but all are cast #2 or #3 actions, and not suitable for this barrel and cartridge.
    I love rollers and that one is a beauty, congrats!

    As to reduced BP loads, lotsa ways to make that happen, I just use wad spacers of 1/8" hard felt along with other various wad materials.

    The .45-70 is the only government I trust.

  18. #18
    Boolit Master marlinman93's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by FrankJD View Post
    I love rollers and that one is a beauty, congrats!

    As to reduced BP loads, lotsa ways to make that happen, I just use wad spacers of 1/8" hard felt along with other various wad materials.

    Thanks!! I really hope I can get the charge of BP down close to a .50-90 if possible. What I really hope is that he's wrong about it being a .50-140, as he wasn't sure if it was possibly a little shorter version. A shorter .50 would just mean less wads or fillers to get where I want.

  19. #19
    Boolit Master marlinman93's Avatar
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    Started to rework the fat forearm on the Darr Roller today, and then I recalled I might have a factory forearm for a Rolling block! Opened up my Remington safe, and dug back to the rear of the top shelf and found a Rolling Block forearm, and a Hepburn forearm! The Rolling Block had some bedding compound at the last 3/8" where it appeared it might have had a round transition on a barrel? I hit the bedding with a file to remove the small area, and it dropped right on the barrel of my gun! Seems it must have also been for a heavy barrel?





    Once I add a little red tint and some finish to the wood it should match the buttstock pretty good. I called my gunsmith friend and asked if he could cut me a front dovetail, so I'll have him D&T for the new forearm also, and not mess with it myself.
    I'll get some shooting time with it then before I spin the barrel off and send the action to Al Springer for color case this winter.

  20. #20
    Boolit Master marlinman93's Avatar
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    Here's the Darr mold that came with this Roller. It is an old Ideal mold that Barry recut to be a .35 mold. Base band is .358", and others are .357", with a weight of 243 grains. Appears he used the entire depth of the old Ideal .308 mold, so a plate was added to seal off the point.




    A friend told me Barry often recut existing molds to make his specialty molds.

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check