frnkeore wrote on Mar 2^nd, 2017 at 7:58pm:


Not unusual to see Brown Ballard parts on very early Marlins Frank, but they are often mixed with Marlin made parts too! Your #490 is about 5 numbers higher than my #4 Perfection and mine doesn't have that Brown buttplate. But mine does have the Brown lever with hole in it, and the pin in the frame that the lever hole fits over.
When Marlin took over production after Brown's bankruptcy they also got all the Brown parts, and machinery. They additionally got a number of employees from Brown, so they assembled guns from a mix of old and new parts. Owning an early Marlin Ballard with Brown parts is a very unique gun! When I restored mine I sent it to Dave Casey at Ballard to CCH, and he was pretty excited to see an early Marlin with the Brown lever and pin.
This is the Brown reverse loop pinned lever:
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powderman wrote on Mar 3^rd, 2017 at 1:18am:


It's chambered in .45 Govt. (.45-70) It was a special order #4 that had a heavy half octagon 34" barrel when I bought it. But some Bubba had drilled out the bore and sleeved it with a '03 Springfield barrel rechambered to .30-30! To top it off they used an electric pencil on the barrel flat to mark it, ".30-30 Black Powder"! 
I bought it about 30 years ago for $200 just to get the barreled action, and then did the restoration back to original look.