custom made ballard 38-55 rifle.

[eastbank]

a good friend who i traded, sold, bought and shot firearms with died several months ago and his brother gave me this rifle. i have no history on it and i don,t know who built it or when, but i told him i liked it and would buy it if he decided to sell it. its built on a old ballard action with a 30" semi heavy oct barrel in 38-55, if it shoots like it looks it will be a winner. eastbank.

 

[Plastikosmd]

Very nice

 

[StrawHat]

Ballards are quite good actions for building custom rifles. There are two styles, forged and cast. The forged is the stronger of the two but neither are really considered strong. Head over the the Single Shot Rifle Association forum for lots of information.

Kevin

 

[expat_alaska]

That is a very nice rebuild on a Ballard frame! It looks to me as the frame may be parked? The wood is beautiful.

I once (1990) bought a Ballard Pacific #5 .45-70 via an ad in the newspaper at 7 o'clock AM for $500. It was in fair condition and I was immediately contacted by an FFL holder with a much greater offer which I accepted. The rifle was in very good mechanical condition. It was similar to this picture:

http://www.gunvaluesboard.com/ballard-pacific-5-329829.html

I guess I needed the money at the time to further my Remington Rolling Block .45-120 project at the time.

I wish I had kept it.

I used to have an old Winchester 94 in .38-55 (which is actually a .40 cal cartridge) and I loved it for moose hunting years ago in Alaska. Good caliber choice!

Jim

 

[zimmerstutzen]

38-55is a 375 bore. 38-40 is a 40 caliber bore.

38-75 was a somewhat underpowered blackpowder cartridge for deer, but a popular target/offhand round.

 

[Don McDowell]

That would appear to be a cast action, don't use anything but blackpowder loads in it, that action may come apart at the seams with smokeless or the subs due to the higher pressure.
Olde Eynsford 1.5 F with the original Ideal 255 gr bullet is working well in a rebuilt ballard one of my neighbors shoots.

 

[eastbank]

i have several lever action 38-55,s that i reload for and don,t load then hot and i will not load the ballard near their level. i think 21grs 4198 with a 255gr soft lead bullet should be alright, 1250 fps at about 14-16 thousand psi. eastbank.

 

[StrawHat]

When it was introduced by Marlin, it was touted as a good target cartridge but also a good deer and black bear cartridge. I remember seeing quite a few rifles chambered for the 38-55 when hunting in the east. The owners felt they hit much harder than the 30-30.

Kevin

 

[Jim Watson]

Flayderman says the "Marlin Firearms Co." logo indicates post-1881 manufacture. I don't know if they were still casting actions by then. But I would not put anything in it but real black any way.

Of course you need to slug the barrel. The older the barrel, the larger. .38-55 is a true .38; my Winchester mikes .3785" on an old rebore, Ken Waters had an original Ballard around .382."
But then it might be rebarrelled with a .375" modern replacement.

 

[Don McDowell]

What the premier Ballard authority in the country has said after the last Ballard blowup from a smokeless round, is that if it's a two line stamp on the action, it's cast.
The 38-55 had a grand reputation as a deer and bear killer back when it was a new cartridge. Still has that reputation from folks that use it.

 

[expat_alaska]

38-55 is a 375 bore. 38-40 is a 40 caliber bore.

I must defer to the gentleman.

Thank you.

 

[Manny]

Happened across a small gunshop in rural PA today, not far from the Ohio line. The proprietor just put a rifle together for Ohio hunting. Starting with a well used Winchester Ranger .30-30 bearing plenty of battle scars and pitting from being rode hard & put up wet, he cleaned up the finish, had the barrel re-bored, converted it to .38-55 and topped it off with a Leupold VX6 1-4. He says it shoots a treat and has already been blooded last year, harvesting a nice deer. I found it to be a very cool gun, exquisitely crafted into a first rate hunting tool, even if it's cosmetically rough.

 

[zimmerstutzen]

Well, Per Barness Cartridges of the World , The 38-55 was originally a Ballard developed Target cartridge. The present commercial version was introduced in 1884 as one of the calibers for the Ballard Perfection No 2.

Barnes go on to say that it gives good knock down power on Deer sized animals at moderate ranges.

The chart of loads given by Barnes indicates that It gives better knock down than the 30-30 with a 255 grain bullet at smokeless velocities. Original black powder loads barely half the power of modern smokeless factory loads. Definitely a "don't use modern factory smokeless loads in old guns" proposition.