Here's a little drawing I made of my Zettler Bros. Ballard barrel. As you can see the bore runs centered to the exterior barrel dimensions, with only the threaded shank turned 1/8" off center to the rest of the barrel. Not at an angle.
The shank is 1/8" offset to the rest of the barrel, and only needs an extractor change when switching to CF or RF barrels.

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LRF wrote on Oct 9^th, 2024 at 6:42am:


The only offset is the threaded shank, which is 1/8" offset. The way mine is setup the offset is located straight up, so when the octagon barrel is installed it's lower from the receiver top flat by 1/8", but sides are almost equal to the receiver width. A new forearm was made to accommodate the lower barrel location and fit the lower part of the action.

steel-pounder wrote on Oct 10^th, 2024 at 11:00am:


Well your method also requires the breech block and extractor to be removed, so I don't see any difference in what it takes to change barrels?
The method Zettler Bros. used on my Ballard does one major thing, it saves having to have a 2nd breech block for a .22RF barrel. To me that's a major expense for any single shot, and a forearm for each spare barrel is something almost every multi barrel setup has used for a long time.
There is no "jacking around" because the shank is offset. In a switch barrel gun the barrels are setup with a cross pin, or a setscrew ala Stevens, so barrels are simply spun off by hand, and it doesn't require any more work to have a centered shank or an offset shank.
Some brands of actions are much quicker to change barrels on a takedown system, like Ballard, Stevens, Winchester. A Hepburn is a bit more time consuming to remove the breech block, so doing that is going to be more involved regardless of what breech blocks are used.

Not being a machinist at all, I have no idea how the old masters dialed in a barrel to be .125" offset on the shank. But I don't see any reason that a bore being .001" or even slightly more or less offset on the shank of a .22 barrel would have a noticeable effect on accuracy? 
I only know my Zettler Ballard shoots better than my skills allow, and others who've shot it did better than I did. No way to tell how one of the brothers dialed in the offset shank, or cut it now? Wish I knew as it would answer how much jacking around they did to get it done.
Not sure why you think my  shorts are in a wad?

marlinguy wrote on Oct 11^th, 2024 at 11:35am:


I possibly just misread the tone of your post. My appologies. 

I know guys that will just chuck up a barrel in a three jaw and cut away. My ocd will not let me do anything than the absolute best that I am capable of doing and trying to do better than that.