Got a new (to me) Ballard. It has a Peterson barrel in 33-47. The receiver has been drilled just in front of the lever and a spring loaded plunger is installed. I've never seen this before. I assume it's to keep the lever tight. Anybody have any insights?

I have a Ballard with a hole in that area. Nothing in it now.

Beautiful Peterson Ballard, with a very early engraving pattern! Appears to be Nimschke style. 
I've never come across a Ballard with this plunger treatment done?

Barrel takedown related ?

It's not a take down pin. It has a fairly heavy spring inside which pushes it against the lever. When I took the breech block out the whole unit fell right out.

I have a #3 Ballard with a spring loaded plunger that’s located in the same position as this rifle. It holds the lever at 90 degrees to the receiver. There are no markings on the rifle. It also has an adjustable pivot at the back of the receiver that allows the buttstock to pivot up and down. There is also a sub-breechblock inside the breechblock that has multiple levers that replace the mainspring. An arm attached to the hammer goes into a a slot in the sub-breechblock to engage the lever(s) inside it This arrangement replaces the sear engagement on the hammer. There is no felt trigger pull, just pull the trigger back and the gun fires.
I purchased the rifle from a gunshop in NJ. It was brought in to be sold on consignment. I am told the man who built it lived/shot in the Newark, NJ area.
I’ve shown the rifle to many people and no one has ever seen anything like.

More pics of my Ballard; note plunger holds lever in vertical position. Also, see pivot on the back of the receiver. There is a two screw arrangement on the bottom of the buttstock to raise and lower it, to adjust comb height.

.22Hepburn wrote on Jul 18^th, 2023 at 6:57pm:


That pivoting stock setup is cool as heck! Never seen that before? I assume the tang was removed inside to allow the stock to move?
Can you show a picture from above looking down on the pivot point?