I was fortunate today to be able to obtain one of those grail guns for me. An A Hubalek striker fired Ballard .22 rifle. The rifle started life as a #8 Union Hill model that Hubalek fitted one of his Hubalek Special barrels to. It appears the Ballard also got a #6 ball & spur style lever with checkered inserts also. The barrel is a heavy #4 weight full round 30" barrel. Double set triggers as the #8 Union Hill came with and typical Union Hill buttplate. The seller said the forearm was junk, and he had someone make up a new forearm and checker it to match.
Seller was just 4 hrs. away, so we each drove a couple hours to meet up and do this deal. Both of us happy with the deal, but I think I am beyond happy on my end!

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Cool rifle Vall! Looking forward to seeing how it shoots.

JerryH wrote on Feb 9^th, 2026 at 7:21pm:


Rain or shine it's getting to at least the indoor range this week!

Glad it worked out for you Vall. I am sure it will shoot well once you spend a few hundred searching for THAT lot of .22 match ammo. Did you have lunch at the Country Cousin?  Yak burger?

Jack

We used to take our kids out there with my Dad when he was staying at an adult care house in Centralia. The first time my we went there my oldest who was maybe 10 refused to go in because she was freaked out by the chicken on the roof and the chicken clucking sounds the door made.

Another nice one Vall, congrats!
Bob

Vall
Great find on the Ballard and thanks for posting the piece of history on Hubalek.

For us Ballard guys, you've got a real keeper.

I need to make one edit to Hubalek history. I just got off the phone in a 2.5 hour chat with Gary Quinlan who knows more about Hubalek than anyone I know! He said Hubalek was an avid shooter from the early 1890's forward, but didn't begin making barrels until after WWI. So I trust Gary's knowledge on these Hubalek rifles.

Nice Ballard Vall. That barrel sure looks long. Hope it shoots good.

A remarkable find, Vall. I'm glad you had the moxie to acquire it!

I'm still kicking myself for not buying a Hubalek Ballard off of Quinlan's table at the Baltimore Show  years ago.

I like your fancy Ballard.  I got a custom one myself in the last year, by a much later gunsmith J. Haugh.  I want to make a ball for the lever like you have.

gnoahhh wrote on Feb 11^th, 2026 at 5:38am:


After Gary and I chatted he mentioned the fact that the smaller Worn striker actions are more often found vs. Marlin Ballard actions converted to striker. I asked him how they were converted and he said Hubalek usually used the original breech block halves and cut the top off the blocks to weld on his new striker block pieces. 
I decided to drop the block out and see how mine is done and it's very obvious where the new striker housing was grafted to the breech block halves. After it was welded it was machined smooth, and then the full sides were engine turned to make a very smooth surface. After that they were casehardened again before being assembled. Can't even imagine how much work and time it took him to do such a task?
Gary also told me that Hubalek barrels were graded by him after they were tested. He grouped them into 3 groups, and all shot excellent, just within certain parameters. He put a dab of paint on each barrel, using different colors to indicate how he would stamp the barrels. The highest grade shot 1/8" groups in his 75 ft. basement test range and got "A Hubalek" And "Special" below his name. Those that shot 1/4" groups just got the A Hubalek. Those that didn't fit into those two categories got sold to other gunsmiths and never made it on rifles he barreled, nor did they get marked.

rkba2nd wrote on Feb 11^th, 2026 at 3:46pm:


Made it to the range this morning. It shoots better than this old guy can hold. I put a 10x Targetspot on it, and I think I'll change to a 15x-20x as it was tough to tell dead center on these air rifle targets.

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Very happy with how well it shoots. The chamber is a snug match chamber, and I had to keep my pocket knife handy to finish extracting cases once the extractor backed them out.

calledflyer wrote on Feb 11^th, 2026 at 4:58pm:


Naw, they all reached, I stayed back just enough to not get powder burns on the targets.

Hell of a Ballard Vall. Got to feel good sitting down and drilling holes with that beauty

The 38-55 you traded can do holes that size in one shot!

I shot a perfect group one time. then I shot the second round.

I don’t consider any less than 5 shot a representative group. If I had a few more fingers and toes I could count all the great 4 shot groups ruined by a 5th shot. Maybe I should tell myself that my minimum number of shots is six so I can stop at 5 at times. 

Jack