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Coleat4440
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WTB: Ballard ring finger lever
Jan 27th, 2026 at 6:35pm
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Looking to purchase a ring finger lever for a new Ballard project. Any help is greatly appreciated!
  
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marlinguy
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Re: WTB: Ballard ring finger lever
Reply #1 - Jan 27th, 2026 at 6:53pm
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Need to specify single trigger or DST type lever. They're different!
  
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bobw
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Re: WTB: Ballard ring finger lever
Reply #2 - Jan 27th, 2026 at 6:56pm
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I’m kind of embarrassed to ask, but what does a ring finger lever look like?
Bob
  
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Coleat4440
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Re: WTB: Ballard ring finger lever
Reply #3 - Jan 27th, 2026 at 6:57pm
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Single! Sorry forgot to add that!
  
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Coleat4440
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Re: WTB: Ballard ring finger lever
Reply #4 - Jan 27th, 2026 at 7:18pm
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This is what it would be.
  
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bobw
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Re: WTB: Ballard ring finger lever
Reply #5 - Jan 27th, 2026 at 9:12pm
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I think I have one of those, I’ll look tomorrow.
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marlinguy
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Re: WTB: Ballard ring finger lever
Reply #6 - Jan 27th, 2026 at 10:58pm
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That's the wrong lever for a single trigger! That's for a DST Ballard. The single trigger ring lever was only found on JM Marlin marked Ballard rifles. They look like this:

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Tough to find these separated from their actions!
  
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bobw
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Re: WTB: Ballard ring finger lever
Reply #7 - Jan 28th, 2026 at 10:49am
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The lever I have is like the one in the picture and is plated.
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marlinguy
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Re: WTB: Ballard ring finger lever
Reply #8 - Jan 28th, 2026 at 11:00am
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The action above pictured by Coleat is a #2 cast action, but the breech block is likely from another Ballard as it's a centerfire only breech block. The lever might also be from yet another gun being a DST Pacific style lever. So appears this is an assembly of mixed parts on that particular action.
  
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scharfe
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Re: WTB: Ballard ring finger lever
Reply #9 - Jan 28th, 2026 at 11:42am
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For a long time I've looked for a single trigger lever like that. I'm buying the next complete rifle with one I see.
  
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ssrifles
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Re: WTB: Ballard ring finger lever
Reply #10 - Jan 28th, 2026 at 12:13pm
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the single trigger loop lever is a hard lever to find, it was used for only about 1000-1500 serial numbers starting around 3500 and they come up with the s lever. it is a nice lever.  good luck.   tony<><
  
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marlinguy
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Re: WTB: Ballard ring finger lever
Reply #11 - Jan 28th, 2026 at 3:00pm
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I have them in my Ballard parts, but I never sell good Ballard parts.
  
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yort
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Re: WTB: Ballard ring finger lever
Reply #12 - Jan 28th, 2026 at 3:36pm
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ssrifles wrote on Jan 28th, 2026 at 12:13pm:
the single trigger loop lever is a hard lever to find, it was used for only about 1000-1500 serial numbers starting around 3500 and they come up with the s lever. it is a nice lever.  good luck.   tony<><


Can't say if it's original to my rifle or not. I've got a single trigger ringed lever rifle in 45-70 with a serial number of 2669. If it original to this rifle they may have stated with the level a little earlier in production.
  
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marlinguy
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Re: WTB: Ballard ring finger lever
Reply #13 - Jan 28th, 2026 at 7:30pm
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yort wrote on Jan 28th, 2026 at 3:36pm:
ssrifles wrote on Jan 28th, 2026 at 12:13pm:
the single trigger loop lever is a hard lever to find, it was used for only about 1000-1500 serial numbers starting around 3500 and they come up with the s lever. it is a nice lever.  good luck.   tony<><


Can't say if it's original to my rifle or not. I've got a single trigger ringed lever rifle in 45-70 with a serial number of 2669. If it original to this rifle they may have stated with the level a little earlier in production.


Ring levers came on many JM Marlin marked Ballard rifles, and those date to pre 1881. The first used the old Brown style lever that was sort of an open ring.
This one is mostly Brown parts on a numbers matching Marlin Ballard #4. Serial number in the low 400 range.
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This #2 in .44 Long is in the low 1500 range and all numbers matching also.
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I've seen other single trigger ring lever Ballards in the high teens, and low 2000 ranges also.

I think John Dutcher told me they ranged from around 2400-6000 with the ring lever? But I've not personally seen any as high as 6000, but it's quite possible the way Marlin mixed in old parts much later whenever the workers found some. I'm also certain as more are examined we might discover more lower numbers. But since lever aren't serialized it's tough to know if they got swapped onto early guns.
« Last Edit: Jan 28th, 2026 at 7:38pm by marlinguy »  
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