I purchased some Ballard parts from a friend and they arrived yesterday. I have a Ballard #2 in an unusual centerfire only breech block. These were only used on .44-40 and .32-20 Ballard rifles as they had no rimfire case in the same cartridge. My friend had a nice .38 Long barrel that I purchased, plus a nice buttstock and forearm. I hoped these parts could be mated to my early JM Marlin action, but figured I'd need some barrel work.
When the parts arrived yesterday I went to my gun room and spun the barrel into my action. It stopped 1/8th turn shy of indexing, and a quick extra push with my action wrench indexed it right up! Amazing! A test fit of the breech block revealed it was a bit tight on closing, so I removed it and looked at the breech face. It had some BP corrosion, so I began stoning and checking fit until the breech block closed normally after a few minutes. This is like winning the lottery to have a Ballard index and fit so easily!
The stocks were the same thing; close and almost a perfect fit. A little file work on the end of the buttstock inletting and it slipped in. Then a little more file work on the rear of the forearm and it too fit! Just need to make a firing pin now, and fit an extractor, and this parts Ballard is done! Easiest gun build I've ever had!

