Bullard (not Ballard) Repeating Arms rifle

jjohnwm

jjohnwm

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A neighbour recently showed me a cool old gun that has been in his family for decades, wanting some information on value. The gun is a lever action made by the Bullard Repeating Arms Co. in Springfield, Massachusetts. It is a long-barreled straight-gripped gun with a full-length magazine, marked ".40 cal." He believes that it is in .40-75 chambering. The gun has a longish receiver with a removable plate on the side for access to the internals. Rounds are fed into the mag tube through a loading gate on the bottom of the action, and ejection is through the top. A dust-cover-like plate is missing from the top of the action, as is part of the rear sight. The cartridge lifter (terminology correct?) is not functioning...it rises with the rearward motion of the lever, but needs to be pushed down manually before the the lever can be moved forward again. Overall condition is quite rough, bore poor, after spending many years neglected in a basement.

The scarce information that I am able to find on the web indicates that the company only made these guns for a four-year span in the late 1870's.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to a source for more information and an approximate value for this gun?
 
The Bullard lever action was made in two frame sizes small and large.
4o caliber were .40/60 and .40/70 Bullard in the large frame. If it has a hard rubber butt plate it should have an Elk motif on it. Barrel length is 26" or 28". Unless it is totally toast value would be in $1000.00 range at 10% condition. What i have been told total production was around 12,000 pieces, including single shot series. It sold new for at least 50% more than a Winchester at the time.

I have one on .45/70 and it is a good shooter. There is a book title Bullard Arms, maybe borrow one from a library.

Carney
 
Here is the book on Bullards. It is an excellent book written by Scott Jamieson. I believe he still lives in the Toronto area. There were a lot of these guns around in the 60s and 70s but most ended up south of the border in the late 80s and 90s.

Pictures would be needed to place a value on this gun. Condition is everything when attemping to a appraise these guns.

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Road King
 
Those things were $15 at the hardware store when I was a kid, fourth-hand and no shells. I always liked the action, have kicked myself many time for not getting one. Oh well, couldn't afford it anyway!

They might have been expensive, but they were enough of a threat that Winchester bought up the tooling and the patents when they got into trouble, just to keep them off the market. Too bad.
 
I picked up a couple of these just to say I had some. The repeater is .45 cal and the single shot is 32-40. These are the smoothest actions ever made!:)

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Road King said:
Two very nice guns Win Shooter. Is there many of these left out in the west coast? One of the few guns that I have never owned and would like to pick a couple up sometime.

Road King
Click to expand...

No, you don't see these at all any more and when the opportunity came by on these I couldn't turn them down. These were bought locally and fondling them made them even more tempting than the net purchasing option. The last one I saw for sale was at the Bud Haynes auction a few years ago in .40 cal(?) and I think it went for 4K+/- range. I have Scotts book and been in contact with him (these serial #'s might make his next one) and from his research the survival rate is only in the 300-400 range.


JohnL...By wearing my shoes down to the last thread allows me to buy more guns;), I can't afford your Gucci loafers:p
 
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