No Tom, it's not. Ballard set triggers are fitted to a base plate, not built into the breech block halves. And look much different in their parts too. Somebody converted a single trigger to set triggers.

A quick Internet search resulted in the following. "Double set-triggers became a prominent feature on Ballard rifles when they were reintroduced in the mid-1870s following the launch of the "New Ballard" action in 1875."

The design appears to be high-quality & required a lot of work.  Could that be from a prototype rifle when Ballard was designing their double set-trigger?  Any idea when the receiver was made?

Wayne

texasmac wrote yesterday at 10:05am:


No, it's not some prototype, or factory DST block. I own Ballard rifles down in low 3 digit actions and they all use a removable plate on the breech block that is the DST assembly. There's far more about this assembly that is totally different than anything Marlin ever made. It looks like a very talented gunsmith's work, but not Marlin's work.
Early Marlin DST plates differ from later in only one respect; they hung down slightly below the bottom of the receiver. Later plates sat flush with the bottom.

TomKlinger wrote yesterday at 10:34am:


Tom, I can't make out the rollstamp on that gorgeous action. Does it read "JM Marlin" or "Marlin Firearms Co."?
If it's a JM Marlin stamp it dates to pre 1881 era.
The lever is the #6 style ball and spur lever.

TomKlinger wrote yesterday at 11:24am:


Like the DST block, the offset bore to make a CF into a RF i something only talented gunsmiths did in the day! I own a Ballard #6 Scheutzen that was built by Zettler and fitted with a .22 Short barrel offset shank to make the CF firing pin strike the rim of the .22RF. I think mine might have also been a switch barrel once and the second barrel got separated from it. There's a screw on the right side of the receiver designed to secure the barrel and likely also be a hook for a breech seating tool. I really should fit up a nice .32-40 Ballard barrel I have to it so it's a set again.

Interesting! Someone sure put a lot of skilled work into this one…

Thanks for your help and information



Tom Klingef

The original DST sear spring was simply curved down to touch, not the C shape Bob's sear spring has. Although I think Bob's version would likely work even better than the originals do.

I'm curious about the C shaped trigger return spring sitting in the left side of that breech block in your first image Tom? That's for a single trigger action, and doesn't appear to have any function to this nicely modified set trigger action?