I've steered clear of the smaller Ballard #2 rifles that were so common in .38 Long RF/CF, and .32 Long RF/CF for a long time now. But I've had a nice early pre 1881 J.M. Marlin #2 action sitting on a shelf in my safe for awhile in hopes I'd stumble across a barrel, and parts to maybe assemble another #2.
Just early this week I got a call from a friend saying he had some parts to sell that he always figured he'd get around to using, but knew he never would. So he sent me pictures of some stocks, forearms, levers, and a couple barrels. One barrel was in .38 Long, and I was immediately interested. A buttstock with buttplate was in excellent shape also, and had a matching numbers forearm too! So I sent him off some money, and today the barrel, forearm, and buttstock arrived!
Of course I had to immediately try the barrel on my action, even though it's a miracle for any Marlin Ballard barrel to index up, and headspace correctly on any other Ballard action. I've had it happen once in numerous attempts. But I spun the barrel down by hand and it stopped about 1/8th turn shy of perfect. I clamped it in my barrel vise, and put my action wrench on the action, and bingo!, it indexed right up! I reinstalled the breech block and tried closing it, and it closed, but with enough resistance to know it was more than the usual .003" crush I like. I removed the breech block, and stoned the face until some BP pitting on the face was almost gone, and tried it again. The fit was perfect, and as tight as a safe vault lockup!
I grabbed the wood and tried the buttstock fit. It too was slightly tight where it slips inside the receiver, and a few minutes with a file removed enough internal wood to fit like a glove. Then I tried the forearm, and the hanger screw wouldn't quite thread into the barrel, as the rear mating edge was tight against the receiver. A few more strokes with the file on the rear edge, and it fit and the screw went right in.
Grabbed an original rear barrel sight from my parts, and a front blade, and tapped those in too. I need to make up an 8" 5/6" through bolt to hold the stock on, and make a firing pin to replace a missing pin, and it's done! The rifling is excellent, and bore is very nice. This one is a pretty rare #2 action as it's centerfire only. Almost all #2 Ballards had a firing pin that could be turned upside down to convert from rimfire to centerfire. A small number were centerfire only like this one. .38 Long is easily made from .38 Special cases, but using a heeled bullet as they're larger diameter at around .360"-.363" bullets. I've got a couple NEI molds for this bullet, so loading for it will be cheap and easy!
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Originally Posted by Green Frog
