I picked up the "UGLY DUCKLING" No.9 Union Hill Model Ballard with the fine "custom" carved stocks, and as soon as I got to taking it apart to fully clean and inspect it I discovered some things. First off the Barrel, Receiver and the furniture are all correct matching numbers, however the breech block halves are not, they do match each other though. Second, the Barrel is stamped .32-40 but the extractor is stamped .38-55, looks like I may have someone's project rifle. Everything fits well and seems to operate fine, even loaded a .32-40 cartridge I have and it fit perfect and the extractor kicked it out just Fine. opinions, is this merely a parts rifle? the breech block was quite dirty so that had to be remedied, it is all clean and lightly greased now.

it's comon to see them marked 38-55

I wouldn't take the caliber marking on an extractor as proof of much. Since the two cartridges use the same extractor it would be easy for a worker in the factory to grab one he knew worked and not care about the marking.
Now the breech blocks, or barrel always matched serial numbers, so if either don't match the frame number they've been swapped. So it is a Ballard that's been messed with. But since the wood is customized the part that don't match aren't a big deal. Only very picky collectors care, and they'd never buy or pay much for one with the carved stocks. As long as you got it cheap the rest isn't a big deal.

westerner wrote on Sep 5^th, 2024 at 9:20am:

I have a No. 5 Pacific with the extractor stamped 44/75 I should cast the chamber to make sure. I suppose I should do that to all my old rifles, never know what has been done over the past 140 odd years.

calledflyer wrote on Sep 6^th, 2024 at 11:14am:


Since the .32-40 was deemed "obsolete" some years ago the fixed ammo also stopped production. On rare occasion it can be found at gun shows as NOS, but prices are too high to make me want to buy any to get brass. 
And even brass is tough to find these days, unless you don't mind buying .38-55 brass and sizing it in your .32-40 dies.
So anyone thinking they can buy loaded ammo to shoot in .32-40 is in for a surprise!

You need to get the rifle company's, to reintroduce a lever 32/40, like Winchester did in the 80's with the "John Wayne" version of the 94.

That's when I got all of my nickel plated  "Duke" 32/40 stock, of which I still have a lot of.

i bought 40 rounds from obsolete ammunition, it was a bit pricy at  58.00 a box of 20. there is also a place in vegas that offers it,  ventura munitions, they have a pretty good selection of older Ammunition. 32/20 winchester, 45/70 etc.

they are stamped .32/40 win, I also just ordered 40 more rounds of .32/40 from ventura, the cost of the brass compared to Rocky mountain is about 1/2, seems like a good plan to but and reload this brass for the price. also picked up a box of 32/20 from ventura.