Newly acquired Ballard doesn't half cock. It appears to me that the 1/2 notch catches on the linkage to work properly.   How do you determine if the linkage is the problem, the hammer is the problem or there is a rift in the mystical union of the two?    It is on a DST hammer.  It will be next week before I  get a chance to tear it apart.  So  I'm reading up and gathering info.

Thanks, 

-06

Opened it up this morning and compared it to one that works.  The sear of the inoperable one is  1/16  shorter than the  working one.  It was easy to see  once you had them side by side.    On the good one, the hammer fly causes the hammer to "rebound" just enough to take pressure off the firing pin.  Lacking that extra 16th, the hammer just sits on the  firing pin.  So,   how to fix the tip end of the  sear?  


I switched the sears and the longer one  fits so securely in the hammer notch as to render the dst useless.  The firing trigger doesn't hit with enough force to release hammer.  If I really squeeze it, it works.   I smell some physics here, I don't like it.

If you know a good welder guy with a tig welder he can easily build up the missing amount, and then you can stone it down to fit. A hard weld isn't easy to stone, but it also wont need to be re-hardened afterwards.
I've got a young welder I use for a lot of tig welding repairs on old guns, and old cars. He does them usually while I wait.

My 25-20 SS Ballard doesn't have a halfcock notch. I removed it. Didn't want it, still don't want it.   

If you're going to be at the 22 matches you could send it to me with  Mike  Creager .I could bring it back to the spring centerfire match.

When the lever is lowered the link pushes the hammer off the firing pin. Cannot drag on the primer.

Target rifles don't need a halfcock. Back when I made that 400 yard shot on that prairie dog with Chuck, I didn't put a round in till I was ready to shoot.

That could happen but a halfcock wouldn't prevent it.  I never had one stick in a primer. Now Hepburns............