Does anyone have information on a contemporary builder by the name of J.B. Dever? 

I purchased one of his rifles on an original Ballard action, 32-40 with a schutzen buttplate. The barrell is marked Dxx which I assume is a Douglas barrel. Any info will be appreciated.

Mr Flintlock

  Mr. Flintlock ;

  Douglas barrels of a Standard Grade may have a minor amount of curvature.  Whereas, Douglas Premium Grade barrels have been judged straight and are accordingly marked with a " XX " designation.

  Creedmoormatch

Jack B. Dever was indeed from OKC, learning 'smithing at the famed shop of Art Mashburn after service in the USAAF during WWII, first as a hobby, then as a fulltime custom gunmaker.

While Jack's rifles were featured in the GUN DIGEST  and on the cover of RIFLE magazine, his XP-100s were also sucessful in IHMSA events. As a noted builder of CF BR rifles, Jack was pictured recently in Mike Ratigan's book "EXTREME RIFLE ACCURACY".

As a long-time Single Shot shooter, Jack seemed to have experience with just about every model known. After years of shooting club matches around OKC he showed up at the 1999 ISSA Nationals at Raton and proceeded to win the RF Bench match, Creedmooring some guy named Wigger (the eventual CF Champion) in the process.

Jack passed away in '03 after a long fight with cancer. His son, Jack Jr., is also an accomplished bench and single shot shooter, lives in OKC and could probably tell you more about your rifle from his Dad's records. I'll bet its a shooter!

Good shooting.

Mr. Flintlock,

Your first URL took me directly to my own Photobucket site. The second URL caused my computer to 'lock up' no less than three times after which I gave up, there's something definately wrong with your URL's. After the third 'lock up' I gave up. 

Harry

Mr Flintlock, my CPA 32-40W long 2.120" chamber Badger barrel prefers a case full of straight Swiss 3f with a 1/32" vegetable wad under a Ideal 319350 197gr bullet. 

Using the same bullet and 4-6 grains of H4227 under Swiss 1 ½ w/wad gave excellent results, some 1” groups at 100yds, but more on the 1 ½” to 1 ¾” average, changed to a 38-55 and 40-65 for black powder so stopped development in the 32-40 cartridge.

Looks like you have a good start, best of luck the Dever rifle, 32-40 is a challenge with BP but they shot great groups in the past, no reason it can not be duplicated burning a few cans of black and having fun!
Mike

Here she be.
<a href=" (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)" target="_blank"><img src=" (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

Look again

Georg,Very nice looking Ballard,nice example of Dever's work--Fritz