SSShooter wrote on Apr 9^th, 2021 at 6:50pm:


Well to start with it's mislabeled. That's not a Ballard #3F, but it is a Ballard #3PG or pistol grip. A #3F is a schuetzen model that used the same Farrow buttplate the #8 and #9 Union Hill models used.
But the #3PG is extremely rare. And add factory engraving, and the condition, it didn't go all that crazy for a very rare gun. 
Yes, I think it went too high also. But if it went around $5500-$6,000 at the end I wouldn't be surprised for such a gun. I think their initial estimate was quite low, and would have been a huge bargain at the range they listed.

40_Rod wrote on Apr 10^th, 2021 at 9:42am:


In which direction? I saw the bubble burst on high end collector guns long before 2016. Back maybe a decade ago prices began to slow, and then started dropping for most collectible single shot rifles. Every year I attended various big gun shows they continued to drop until they seemed to level out a few years ago at about 30% below the earlier inflated prices I'd seen for many years.
I've not been to a gun show in over a year with the shutdowns, but I think if anything the last year has begun to increase prices again. Mostly due to people sitting home and not having their gun show fix. So they're buying at online auctions, and paying a little more than they used to pay pre shutdown.

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So they're buying at online auctions, and paying a little more than they used to pay pre shutdown. [/quote]
Where im at I used to get good deals at local shops that sell black guns that took classic rifles in on trade .now with the shutdown the shops are gunbrokering the stuff I would buy and realizing fat prices.

bohemianway wrote on Apr 10^th, 2021 at 11:36am:


Yep! That's a #3PG, not #3F. A rarer model, and usually a little more money from Ballard collectors. I've only seen a few for sale in my years of collecting Ballard rifles. I've seen more the owners didn't care to sell. 
But #3F aren't all that common either. Just more so than the PG version.

It will never be a collector item since it is a brown gun but it functions very good and even though the bore is not perfect it actually does pretty well with 22LR St.Vel. (about 1" at 50yds) so it is good for youth 4" gong shooting). I bought it originally 30 years ago at my small town Wisconsin show where it walked in the door with the intent to build a Schuetzen rifle. But I could not bring my self to do it. So now it is a hand me down to grandchildren if that ever happens. Thanks for the info I will make a note to stay with it so some other ham fisted crank does not disassemble it in the future. BTW frame top flat is scalloped as it should.

Charles