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?

that says alot dave would put a screwdriver to anything to see how it was put together.

Ballard pivot

I assume the single-set trigger on 40-82Hepburn's Ballard is also part of the rifle's imaginative customization.

Bill Lawrence

Actually, it is not a single set trigger. It has a completely different mechanism inside the breechblock, not the usual sear and mainspring arrangement. I’ll have to take it apart and post pics. 
Whoever built this rifle must have had an engineering background. The workmanship and thought that went into designing the mechanism is quite amazing.

Another

Bill, the screw is for over-travel of the trigger.
After quite a bit of discussion with Dave Crossno and others, who also scratched their heads, we think this is the product of a mad genius, lol. Seriously, given the ingenuity of the design, mechanical understanding, fitment and woodwork (extensive checkering), maybe someone who built pianos (?). I think it’s safe to say that this is a one-off.
If only these old guns could talk….

Indeed a talented gunsmith, or machinist who likely built this Ballard for himself. The amount of specialty work done to it would have taken so much time I doubt it would be repeated as a service sold to most shooters.
What a wonderful piece of workmanship!

That area of NJ (Elizabeth, Newark, Kearny, and Jersey City, over to Staten Island) had a very active community of matches and shooters. This rifle was certainly shot a lot, judging by the wear in the bore and feckled nickeling on the receiver and lever. 
FYI, the rifle has a #3 full octagon Winchester barrel on it. It is presently 30” long, so I’m thinking it must have at least 32” before it was cut down and put on this rifle.

wcf3840 wrote on Jun 12^th, 2023 at 3:49pm:


WCF,
I was able to spend a little time with a Ballard nearly identical to yours some time ago, without the plunger in place there was a tiny bit of lever droop.  The lever still cammed over and gave "Ballard snap" but then it drooped from the action about an 1/8" The plunger kept the lever up to the action when in place.  In my opinion, someone that was used to working on coil spring high walls had a hand in working on this. 
Regards,
Greg