Ballard receivers with forging flaws

[pjogrinc]

I've seen several Ballards with forging flaws in the steel on different parts of the receiver. All looked like cracks with the metal missing, but closer inspection revealed that it was a forging flaw in the steel.

How common is this on the old Ballards and since most of the forging flaws where lengthwise in various locations of the receiver, none around breach area or area back of the hammer block,

Would these guns still be safe to shoot with original black powder loads ??

[Harry Eales]

I've seen several Ballards with forging flaws in the steel on different parts of the receiver. All looked like cracks with the metal missing, but closer inspection revealed that it was a forging flaw in the steel.

How common is this on the old Ballards and since most of the forging flaws where lengthwise in various locations of the receiver, none around breach area or area back of the hammer block,

Would these guns still be safe to shoot with original black powder loads ??

Hello PJ,

Most of the forged single shot actions of the 1800's contained flaws. These are actually scale inclusions.

When metal is heated to between red and white hot prior to forging, it developed a scale on the outside of the metal, when this material was then dropped into the Drop Forging Die and beaten to death by the drop forge hammer some of the metal and it's oxydized skin was bent and twisted, so that the oxydised skin was turned sideways appearing as a thin line in otherwise apparently flawless steel.

Hundreds of Drop Forged Actions show these faults, I have seen them on original Sharps, Remington, Stevens, Winchester and many other single shot actions.

It was simply the way things were done in those 19th.C. days. Most rifle actions didn't suffer from these inclusions but quite a number did. There's nothing really to worry about as long as you stick to BP loads of the period.

Harry

[pjogrinc]

Well, had a metal engineer look at the receiver and he said that it was caused by 'scale' being hammered/folded into the metal during the forging process. He measured the width and depth with some kind of machine that uses optics and laser to measure surface variations/defects. The widest spot he could find was 0.00178 inches wide and max depth was 0.00378 inches. He blasted it with a laser on another machine in the deepest spot to a depth of .00527 inches and then checked it. Good metal below was his comment. He said not to worry about it as structurally its no worse then a gouge in the metal.

Maybe I got over concerned when I looked at it with a 10X jewlers loop !!!! As to the naked eye, it looks like a scratch.

[KCSO]

Just remember that the Ballards were one of the weakest actions and stick to B/P and you will be all right.