Could be, if you're very lucky, .44-40, but probably more likely to be .44 Long or Extra Long, for which the .44 Mag case is no substitute.

Thank you for the info. If it is a .44 Long, is it an accurate enough cartridge/bullet for 200 yd target shooting?  Is a flat nosed bullet with a full case of 3F good as a 100-150 yd deer hunting round?
If I wanted to rebarrel it (saving the original for posterity) in, say, no more than a .40-65 Win, would it be appropriate to drill and tap the tang for a vernier tang sight for sihlouette shooting?
Thank you.

MIEagle wrote on Mar 19^th, 2017 at 10:44am:


All Marlin Ballards are factory D&T for a tang sight with a 1.125" spacing. If yours isn't it's the first one I  ever heard of. If yours isn't a Marlin, then it may not be D&T for a sight as earlier Ballards used a dovetailed sight base.
The #2 Ballard is a cast action (as are all pre-Marlin Ballards) and not suitable to rebarreling to any centerfire rifle cartridge. The .44-40 and .44 long were the most powerful cartridge the cast #2 was built on, and even those calibers were dropped in later production for the cast #2 frames. If your rifle was the forged receiver used in rifle calibers the .40-65 would be no problem at all.
200 yds. is not an issue with the .44 Long, but it will have a pretty good arc in the bullet's flight at that distance. I've shot mine accurately enough to hit 500 yd. dingers, and 300 yd. are very accurate. But it's certainly not going to be anyone's first choice, and more likely just a fun challenge to see how far it can be pushed.
A 200 gr. bullet in the .44 Long is plenty good to take deer sized game if the bore and the shooter are both up to the task. Biggest issue is knowing your gun, the bullet drop, and gauging distance to the target. I haven't used mine for deer hunting, as I have others in better rifle calibers. But I wouldn't hesitate to use it if it was what I had to hunt with.

Rebel wrote on Mar 19^th, 2017 at 11:23am:


Aaron, the 2 or 3 line address thing is a pretty good way to tell if it's cast or forged, but not 100%. I have seen a fair number of 3 line Ballards with forged frames, and just recently seen two 2 line cast #2 frame Ballards also! So there are exceptions to the rule and it makes me want to drop the breech block on any Marlin Ballard and verify if it has the void under the barrel that tells us it's a cast action. Or solid under the barrel that tells it's a forged action.

Rebel wrote on Mar 19^th, 2017 at 1:38pm:


I knew about the 3 line guns that were forged, but had never heard of or seen the reverse! Even spoke with Dutcher in Denver last May about the same subject, as I bought my Rigby Ballard there and it is a 3 line forged. He said he'd not seen any 2 line cast, and I hadn't then either. But in the last 6 months I ran across two of them that are #2 cast actions and 2 line addresses. One a friend bought, and the other was on Gun Broker and in .32 Long. I contacted the seller hoping it was a rare forged Ballard in .32 Long. He removed the breech blocks and took a picture of the inside of the receiver which confirmed it was a cast 2 line receiver. I'd still love to have it, but his reserve is way too high for just owning an oddity.

He says it has the firing pin on the hammer and that would make it an early pre-Marlin Ballard. It is definitely a cast action and not suitable for any modern cartridge. It may have been modified from it's original configuration. Originally it would have been a 44 rimfire. Some in the N-SSA convert them to centerfire and enlarge the chamber to the 44 Russian, 44 Special or the 44/40 WCF. It could be either of these.

Deadeye Bly wrote on Mar 20^th, 2017 at 8:09am:


Another method of CF conversion I've heard of on the dual-ignition models consists of replacing the nipple on the block with a short firing pin.  But if the gun in question is any of the pre-Marlin models, it's odd that whoever's got it failed to note the unusual appendage protruding from the bottom of the forearm--the manual extractor.

If the chamber must be reamed to accept .44 Spl. (which, because of the .44 RF's heel bullet, is what I thought originally), how can .44 Mag cases be used?