To appease some of the folks I shoot with, I did a little more work on my second striker Ballard - last night I "rough finished" the wood AND made a screw and attached the forend...   
I convinced the RO today that the Ballard is a service rifle of sorts and shot it in a reduced SR match.  The prone target shows promise, the prone rapid fire was bit of a disaster -DNF, but the sitting rapid fire was fairly good.  Awful hand didn't do so well either - here's a couple targets worth sharing
Caliber is a 40-70SS, bullet is a 455 gr BACO Nasa, burning 5744 powder.
Sorry if some of this is redundant, I think I posted something about how this rifle shoots in the past but I can't remember it... something about time and age involved here...

Greg, what’s the wood handle laying in the case?  And is that a quick takedown screw on the lever?
Does looks like you’re having fun!

Karl,
This is the second striker Ballard I built, the first one I did was a 22rf and I drug that post on for quite a while - to the point it wore  on me so I can only imagine how some of the members here felt.  This one is the second striker Ballard and I did it in a 40-70SS.  There was something about it back in the gunsmithing section, or maybe I tagged it in with the first post, I can't recall.  The striker is a design my son and I came up with.  The side plate is a piece of Damascus, the breech block is made from 8620 alloy and all the moving parts are made out of 17-4 stainless including the sliding extractor and arm, except the triggers- they are mild steel and case hardened.
I lost some motivation with this one until I decided to take it to a match over the 4th of July.  It was a Mile Match, lever gun and Safari animal shoot.  My intention was to shoot a Big Fifty I built at the match, and did, right up until I broke the rear sight off the morning before the match started.  No worries, I had a extra long staff made up for this 70 so with nothing to lose, I shot this one at the mile, and the safari match (311yds out to 1026yds) We had fairly heavy winds both days, 25 to 35 mph and this little Ballard did better than I expected - I had 0 out of 20 shots at the mile, but we saw all but two hits, a couple were within a minute of hitting and the vertical wasn't the issue.  After the shoot I had three hits in a row, go figure. 
It performed very respectable on the rest of the targets so it has my interest again.  I was gigged constantly about the finish on the metal and the wood, my inner tube bands holding the forend on created constant banter...  I'm going to surprise them all next weekend
Here's a few pictures of it in its progression up to where it is today.  Eventually I'll do some more metal work and color case the action, I think a plumb brown on the barrel.

Your Ballard is good a looking gun!  Funny about the rods, been thinking of doing the same thing with the wood from the guns I built.  Yours look nice.  I need to find some rod material and give it a go.  Screws like that would be handy in building, a zipper would be easier if we could figure how to make one work!

Bob,
I had a cleaning rod fatality this am   One made for the 22rf didn't make it - probably glue an oak dowel inside and still use it.  It was a pultruded type material but it was all I could find in this size.  The twill or braided style carbon fiber holds up a lot better but 6 mm is about the smallest I seem to be able to find in it.  I'll keep looking.
Greg

Greg, that’s unfortunate on the rod.  But, that Ballard in the picture reminds of the one I got from Dave.  The pitted up one.  Except mine is much worse than yours.  I bought it more as a Ballard example than anything but I keep looking at it and seeing an interesting complete gun!