Ballard Rifling
I've been looking at some older Marlin 22's and they mention that some of 'em have Ballard rifling. I have heard that it might be about being a type of rifling for lead/non jacketed bullets. Am I correct or all wet? Thanks.
Todd
Todd
0
-
Yes, you are correct. The Ballard type rifling likes the cast lead bullets over the jacketed. The Marlin "COWBOY" guns, if I am not mistaken have this rifling, as does some of the newer(and older) Winchester's. A lot of the replica Sharps, and Remington Rolling Block rifles have this too.
I have tested the theory using a Marlin 1895 in 45-70, Winchester 1885(Browning BPCR), and 1886's(Both Winchester/Miroku takedown models) in the same chambering, and a Pedersoli 1874 Sharps Deluxe, in 45-70. They all shot the copper jacketed bullets well, but did a LOT better with 300-405 grain lead bullets. My loads consisted of Misourri Bullet Co. #1 Buffalo bullets in 300, and 405 grains, and a dose(32-34 grains) of IMR 4198. I also used Sierra, and Hornady jacketed bullets.
Best0 -
OLDER Marlins:
Marlin owned Ballard and built the rifles from about 1875 til 1891. I suspect they quit making single shots to concentrate on lever action repeaters in 1891. Ballard had a great reputation for accuracy and it was easy for Marlin to capitalize on and advertise the one Ballard feature they could put in any of their guns, the rifling plan. That worked for about 60 years. In the early 1950s they came out with Microgroove rifling and pushed it hard for some time.
NEWER Marlins
But with the advent of the new production 1894 pistol caliber guns, people started complaining about the difficulty of getting them to shoot cast bullets well from their Microgroove barrels. Marlin dodged the issue for a while with the reissue 1895 .45-70 which was announced with conventional rifling, then went to "Modified Microgroove suitable for cast and jacketed bullets." Then they quit saying anything about cast bullets and just cataloged them with Microgroove rifling. Probably realized there was no factory lead bullet .45-70 ammunition and got worried about saying anything that would indicate they authorized handloading for their guns.
The matter got serious when the Cowboy Craze struck and there was a good market for lead bullet carbines. So they proudly announced "Ballard Style Rifling" in many of those. I don't know how close it really is to 19th century Ballard design, it looks like regular six groove rifling not much different from anybody else's.0 -
WOW!! Thanks guys, very interesting[^] 0
Please sign in to leave a comment.
Comments
3 comments