Just stumbled unto some Carlos Gove info, but not the exact rifle that is shown above with the under finger loop lever, but nonetheless a very interesting piece indeed for a Rem. R.B.

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C.M.M.

  Thank you very much X.T.M. for your help, just what I was hoping and looking for.

  Apparently Mr. Gove was a highly skilled and creative person and it shows in his work.

  C.M.M.

After some more examination of the rear barrel sight on Littleman's Maynard, I'm certain that it is an elevation adjustable Marlin-Ballard sight....which would've been an option from the factory. Mass. Arms obviously had some arrangement with Marlin-Ballard to use some of their sights, because I have seen many Ballard sights mounted on Maynard rifles - particularly adj. vernier tang sights on high-grade Maynard target models. The ingenious rack-and-pinion Maynard was difficult to make fine adjustments...but the Ballard sight was not.

Also...it is not uncommon to see Ballard windgage front sights on high-end Maynards. They accommodated the 3/8" dovetail of the Ballard sight by use of a slotted shim that perfectly fitted the 30/64" Maynard slot. (I'll post a photo later.)

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The stylized "arrowhead" on the forward end of Littleman's sight is a telltale Marlin-Ballard characteristic. The "arrowhead" is similar to Winchester barrel sights of the same era, but is sculptured differently. I compared his photo with examples I had on-hand and with a photo (p.89) in Gerald Kelver's book, Reloading Tools, Sights, and Telescopes for Single Shot Rifles. It would have been easy enough for the Mass Arms shop to mill down the 3/8" dovetail to fit their nominal 9/32" rear barrel slot...certainly easier than designing and manufacturing a similar sight.

  If one were to look closely that the sight's male dovetail in photo IMGP0340 I believe there is evidence that Mass Arms Co. did in fact mill off the Ballard 3/8" down to 9/32" in order to fit the Maynard 9/32" female slot.  Look closely, is not the angle discernible and the top metal is wider at the front (muzzel) end of the sight.


However, from a cost standpoint I would suggest that it would have been more cost effective for M.A.Co. to simply order a 3/8" dovetail cutter from their tool supply house in order to accept the stock Ballard rear barrel sight.

C.M.M.

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In need of help explaining Mr. C. Gove's side lever conversion device.

C.M.M.

P.S.  I now see what this is about.  The side lever is not at all connected to the breech block, but rather is simply held to the action with a threader screw which is just a "pivot point" for the lever.  the lever has a protraction to the left which comes to bear against the breech block "thumb piece" in order to apply additional pressure against the breech block on an "as needed" basis.  If added pressure is not needed to seat a tight case the lever remains down in the horizontal position until again needed.

C.M.M.

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Right you are Ron !  That would be an easy R.R.B. addition to replicate.  I suspect it could also be modified from what we are looking at so that the lever would also breech seat bullets when the breech block is opened and rearward.

I've seen bullet seater tools similar to this lever that hook onto a receiver stud to operate & then are removed each time to shoot.

C.M.M.

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I'm not trying to argue  ...but then the shooter couldn't replace any of the standard 9/32" Mass. Arms rear sights if they wished. Obviously, Mass. Arms. had some good reason for preferring their own particular choice of sizes for front and rear sight slots? (Sight slots on perc. Maynards are another story, BTW) Other manufacturers did, too - judging by all the variations by brand.

FWIW...I have never seen an early Remington front sight show up on an original un-messed-with Maynard rifle. Surprising - since they shared that same wide 30/64" slot...another reason for me to believe that Mass. Arms had some sort of arrangement with Marlin-Ballard for sights...at least for a time.