Small falling block??

cedarboat

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Hi,
Can anyone recommend a small falling block action suitable for .357 mag or .357 maximum pressures? Something lightweight and compact? Similar in size to a Martini .310 Cadet.
I know that an American company circa 1985 made one. but I do not recall the company name.
Any ideas??
Thanks.
 
FBW Inc.
They went out of business sometime in the 80's IIRC.. They made several action sizes...
They maybe back in business now as a search over at the ASSRA website netted the post below...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Art,the address for FBW is as follows: FBW Inc.
6186 Rapid City Rd.N.W.
Rapid City,MI 49676
Ph:231-331 7009
Hope this helps you---Fritz
 
Hi,
Can anyone recommend a small falling block action suitable for .357 mag or .357 maximum pressures? Something lightweight and compact? Similar in size to a Martini .310 Cadet.
I know that an American company circa 1985 made one. but I do not recall the company name.
Any ideas??
Thanks.

Martini and Hagn offer several sizes of their excellent action. Although not a falling block Uberti was making a "baby rolling block" in 357 a year or two ago.
Dakota also makes a scaled down sharps.
 
Prolly your best option would be the Win. 1885 Low-wall, or any of the copies out there, ranging from top of the line; C. Sharps, through Browning, and then Uberti. You asked about falling block rifles so I won't touch on rolling blocks such as on Tradex. Prolly the best other choice is the small Martini action(cadet) which run usually $500 now and are quite ready for conversion. It depends on which type of action you prefer the looks/function of.
 
FBW is Falling Block Works, if that helps.

The Model K action is probably the one you want. Looks sort of like a Winchester 1885, much simpler internals, no automatic cocking.
Getting it into Canada may be a minor PITA. Import costs and time.

There was a small falling block action made in Italy and sold as the Fraser Highlander, by an importer out of the US named Cape Girardeau (spelling?) Outfitters. Neat little action, but has issues with the firing pin tip locking the action up, as the geometry is a bit out of whack.

The EA Brown Co. Model 97 falling block may be worth a look too.

CPA sells a new version of the Stevens 44 1/2 that may be worth a look. It's actually larger than the original, to allow use of cartridges that were considered t have been marginally to large for the original actions.
The Stevens 44 1/2 action is a true falling block, rather than the swinging block that was used on the Model 44, or the Favorite.

Then there are several (OK, one or two, provided the owners have not died) really small operators that are making single shot actions for the Scheutzen crowd.

Personally, I'd love to see a scaled down 1885 action available. Probably not gonna happen.

Most of the suitable actions are either quite old, or made in the US. The Martini and Hagn, being the exception to the latter. The M&H action is very Euro looking. Either you will like it or hate it, but they sure want some coin for it!

Cheers
Trev
 
If you wanted to do all of the work yourself, there are plans for a vault lock action in one of Frank de Haas' books. Book is out of print but should show up from time to time on sites like abebooks dot com.

cheers mooncoon
 
Thanks Gents,
Some to look into for sure. A rolling block would do the job as well, I,ll have to see what I can find and go from there.
Great info. Thanks again.
 
...? Something lightweight and compact? Similar in size to a Martini .310 Cadet....

Darn... that reminds me that I have a .310 Cadet I want to get rebored to .357! But everytime I read that Ron Smith (apparently the only person in Canada who does this) has up to a year waiting list, I keep putting it off! Of course, it be done by now...

I wish that one of the Italian manufacturers would make Martini reproductions.

:) Stuart
 
True, but a break action just isn't the same thing as a nice rolling or falling block action. And one intended for some of the classic handgun cartridges up to .44Mag and .45Colt shouldn't need to be terribly big and heavy.
 
No there is something special about falling blocks that a Contender will never be.

There are the Ballards: ht tp://www.ballardarms.com/

Quite a few offer the Low Wall reproductions and I thought that there was someone building Stevens 44 1/2 rifles again similar to the Ballards but can't find it now.
 
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