Christmas Ballard 22 Project

[rwnblack]

I bought a Ballard project on this forum a few months ago. It was in pretty rough shape but we agreed on a price that I thought I could take a chance on it. I have a affinity to Ballards, some people bring home stray cats, I bring home ballards. The rifle is a Ballard #3 gallery rifle and it has had a pretty hard life. The screw which hold the action together was completely buggered and someone tried to drill it out but missed. The barrel and the front of the action have been beat on very hard with a hammer. The barrel is pretty buggered all around. I decided to treat my self during the Christmas hollidays and try to turn this into a nice 22 but knowing that it will still have some of the heavy marks from the past.

I drilled out the action cross screw and removed the breach block. I had to get the two piece extractor apart and get the barrel off the action. Little bit of persuasion with a Oxy acetelyn torch helped. I decided to abandon the barrel and use a 32 rimfire barrel that I picked up with other Ballard parts. I welded up the extractor slot, drilled the barrel out to accept a donor barrel ( Model 75 Cooey that I bought at auction which was missing the bolt). I made a larger shank on this “liner” to make sure I have lots of meat to drill the 2 piece extractor into. I epoxied in the liner and cut the it for the extractors. I installed the barrel, draw filled it and chambered it with a match reamer. I decided to use the existing butt stock but it needed a piece added in the toe. I made a for-end with a basic piece of walnut. I cleaned up the action as best as I could and case hardened it, rust blued the barrel, fireblued the small bits, and now am in the process of putting an oil finish on the stocks. Can’t wait to take this to the range and try it out. Here are pics of the process and the results.

The starting place, pretty much looks like scrap iron...

 

[rwnblack]

Here I took the action apart but had to drill out the cross screw to 1/4” X 40 and ream the action, leaver and extactor to accept the screw. There is little evidence that the hole was drilled off centre. I would have just tig welded the hole and re tapped it but this is a cast iron action and that is problematic to weld. The action works now.

 

[rwnblack]

Next up was to drill the 32 cal 26” barrel for a “liner”.

 

[rwnblack]

Then I turned the Cooey barrel down to create my liner and glued it into place.

 

[rwnblack]

Next up was to drill the barrel for the 2 piece extrator. This is a hair raising thought as you drill parralel to the bore with a very thin wall between the chamber and the extractor. To do this I drilled this in my lathe between centres and I off set the tail stock 0.190”. I had to cut the side of the barrel shank for the other part of the extractor and then spend time getting the extractor fitting and working. I cut the chamber and now it works well.

 

[rwnblack]

Next up was to stock this up. I was debating building new stocks for it but I was hoping to keep some of the oringinal parts if I could so I used the buttstock and milled a piece off where the toe was chipped and glued a piece of walnut on. I had to bend the buttplate back to the original curve and fit it to the stock. The forend was missing so I had to create one.

 

[rwnblack]

Final fitting and shaping of the forend and the buttstock. I used a file on the buttstock to keep the lines straight and remove as little wood as possible.

 

[rwnblack]

More stock work.

 

[rwnblack]

Next to clean up the action by drawfilling but I had to go lite on the area with the roll stamp so I don’t loose to many markings. The rest of the action cleaned up pretty well.

 

[OkayShooter]

Very nice.

 

[rwnblack]

More finishing work

 

[rwnblack]

Then I casehardened it and rust blued the barrel.

 

[cdnrokon]

You must be Harry Pope reincarnated, awesome work and pictures.

 

[rwnblack]

I marked the caliber on the barrel, my initials and the year under the forend and put an MVA front sight.

 

[pmatuk]

looks awsom as usual ,putting the process in pics lends an understanding of what a restoration entails .About .08 cents an hour LOL

 

[rwnblack]

I stained the stock and snapped a pic while the first coat of oil was still wet.

 

[9mill]

Awesome.

 

[Sharps '74]

Marvelous work, bloody marvelous!

Good to keep an old rifle shooting.

 

[9mill]

Sorry if this details the thread but how does case colour hardening work? What is involved in doing it?

 

[ShawnC6]

Love it.