A friend has  a #3 Gallery with no caliber ID. It appears to be a 22LR but our first shot resulted in a split case. Did they make them in WRF? A 22WRM slides in nicely but is too long.
Tom

MGTOM wrote on Feb 13^th, 2017 at 5:37pm:


The Ballard #3 was originally listed for the .22 Short and the .22 Long. Later it was offered in the .22 Extra Long, and still later yet it was offered in the .22 Maynard Centerfire, and the .22 Winchester Centerfire. I've never seen one in either of these CF calibers myself, but they were cataloged options.
None of the Ballard #3 rifles had the caliber marked on them for some reason. All other Ballard rifles made during the pre 1882 era JM Marlin marked didn't normally have a caliber stamp either. After incorporating and becoming Marlin Firearms Co in 1882 they began marking calibers on all but the #3 model.
As I mentioned above one of my #3 Ballards was rebored to .25 Stevens RF, but the Stevens name, and caliber marking is under the forearm, so not visible. It might be your friend's Ballard is rebored to the Stevens .25 RF.

The .22 Extra Long is identical in every way to other .22RF Short, Long, and Long Rifle cartridges, except for length, which is 1.16" long. Same diameter, same bore size, same rim, etc.
With a .234" chamber it should be within spec.

Was looking at Cartridges of the World, so should have guessed their dimensions could be incorrect. But I may have misread it, as I just looked and they list neck diameter at .225" and base diameter at .234".
Since you're relining it, I guess it wont matter, as it will all be good when you're done!

The 22WRF is .244 in diameter so, it's to big.

I guess that it's just wore that much (.227 out to .234). If you take .007 off the bore size, too, that comes to .216 and that might be about right, too.

Frank

Redsetter wrote on Feb 15^th, 2017 at 12:09am:


I doubt a shooting gallery would have ever had a set trigger gun. Considering this gun is well over 125 years old at the newest, and maybe older; I'd say it's faired pretty well. Those marks look like vise jaw marks, and I've seen a lot worse than those few little marks on old guns. Seems .22 rimfires got the worst treatment.

Redsetter wrote on Feb 15^th, 2017 at 9:43am:


Maybe I'm thinking of something different than you when I read "shooting gallery"? Shooting galleries are usually composed of a lot of cheap .22 rifles. In the early days they were often .22 pumps, or bolt actions. Single shots might be used very early in the public shooting galleries, but they were usually still very cheap models, not an expensive Ballard with special order set triggers.
And if you're referring to one of the big shooting indoor ranges like Zettler's in NY City, the guns would be owned by the shooters, and not the range. Those guns were far more specialized than Frank's Ballard, and either exotic bench guns,  or offhand style rifles.

frnkeore wrote on Feb 15^th, 2017 at 11:12am:


They weren't wrong about that!  Anyway, Stevens had the "starter 22" market sewed up tight.