OK, Vall.  Here are the photos of the new to me Ballard stocks with the hook plate.  The brass plate is stamped J MEUNIER on the inside.  I found this reference:

MEUNIER, John— Milwaukee, Wis., 1855-1919. West Water Street. Maker of very fine percussion schuetzen rifles. Listed as John Meunier Gun Co. after 1893. After the general adoption of breech loading target rifle, Meunier built schuetzens on Ballard, Mar tini and Patt-Martini actions.


It is fitted to the newer stock well with some evidence of sanding both pieces to fit.  It fits the weird stock poorly but shows some evidence of old bedding that has chipped off.  There are 3 screw holes since the through bolt holes are at different positions.  Not sure if either stock was the original one the plate was fitted to.

Jack

I took the new 38-55 Ballard to the range today.  It went bang but only 90% of the time.  The rim recess has been cut too deep so 1 out of 10 attempts takes a second hammer strike.  A longer firing pin should fix that.  Accuracy was mediocre, but I did not work on making load changes.  I was more into getting it on paper and checking functions.  I may need more seating depth from my plugged case.  Next session I will budget more time for it.  Now to disassemble the breech block and do some cleaning.


Jack

bpjack wrote on May 1^st, 2021 at 7:16pm:


So the headspace is excessive?  Rim cut in the barrel is to deep?

I see now that what I thought was a recess for a long top tang in the smaller pictures is the end of the stock cut off and offset down. Makes more sense now.
I think Joe's right. If you set the barrel back one thread it will tighten up headspace, and make it reliable. But may also help accuracy a bit too.

The forend could benefit from setting the barrel back but the rear scope block is already touching the receiver.   I could undercut that block to prevent having to drill more holes.  John, the primer is flush in the case. I think it is the camera angle that makes it look like it is even with the back of the barrel. I have a few things to try with this rifle before I address this issue since I am not sure I want to keep it in 38-55.  I have a 32-40 barrel that came off my other Ballard that I might try on it as well as the 30-30 Wesson that came with it. 

Jack

I believe it is 18 TPI.

I have a Merwin&Hulbert H&A .38-55 Shotgun that had the rim seat cut too deep.  Unless it was pointed vertically, the firing pin wouldn’t even set the primers off.  (Maybe it used folded-head shells; it’s certainly ancient enough.)

I measured the excess headspace with a modern shell in the chamber with a dial caliper, got a piece of shim stock 0.001” thinner than the measurement, soldered it to the end of a piece of steel rod, and cut a circle of ID the shell base diameter and OD the rim diameter on my lathe.  I cut a section out with a chisel to clear the extractor cut, and melted the piece off the holding rod.

I cleaned the rim seat with brake cleaner, oiled the rest of the barrel and pushed a cleaning patch almost to the chamber base.

I put a tiny amount of flux in the rim seat, put the piece of shim, solder side down, in there (matching the cutout with the extractor cut), and heated the barrel breech with a propane torch while pressing the shim down with a wood dowel.  When I could see the solder melt, I removed the torch and held the dowel there until the solder cooled.

It’s shot fine ever since, and I can’t even see the junction any more.  Probably a tiny amount of JB Weld would do as well; you wouldn’t even need to get the barrel off or heat anything.