Nice catch Vall!  I have soft spot for Ballards anyway and Bremers of any kind make that worse.
GT

DWT1885 wrote on Apr 24^th, 2026 at 10:03am:


I wondered the same thing Dale, but after removing the forearm I saw the matching numbers on barrel and receiver, so it's an original Ballard barrel.

Vall, congrats on finally getting it.  Looks to have been worth the wait.
Bob

bobw wrote on Apr 24^th, 2026 at 11:36am:


Thanks Bob. It was worth the wait, and a bit sweeter waiting so long.

One of my friends who also belongs to our Historical Arms Collectors group told me at our last meeting that he had some info another of his friends put together about Otto A. Bremer and he'd send it to me! It arrived yesterday and has a long historical list of Bremer's various shops around San Francisco area, plus his home address also. It's been mistakenly reported that his shops were in SF, but his home was across the bay in Alameda. The info I got seems to finally correct this puzzlement for me of how Bremer could get to and from work each day with no bridges across SF Bay at the time? Turns out Bremer's home address is on Alameda St., not city of Alameda, Ca.! It's within walking distance of every shop location he had!
Another point of interest was his shop in downtown SF from around 1900 suddenly changed addresses in 1907 directory. Then the light bulb came on for me when I remembered the 1906 SF earthquake! Likely his shop was destroyed, or at least tough to get to for him or customers, so he moved to an area that didn't see much damage.
I still haven't found out when Bremer came to SF area, when he was born, or when he died. But his first appearance in the SF directory shows a partnership with August Browning in a SF gunsmithing business in 1882. (A. Browning was no relationship to the famous John Browning.) His last shop address was in SF in 1932, so guessing he retired or passed away then.

DWT1885 wrote on May 1^st, 2026 at 2:34pm:


He seemed to always have his shop within blocks of his home, so walking was not very far to get to work. I also got a newspaper writeup about a match where Otto and his brother both competed and placed fairly high in the scoring. They only listed his brother's name as F.H. Bremer, so not sure what his proper first name was?
There was a young woman who joined and replied here about 5-6 years ago when someone else posted a Bremer rifle. She said her great uncle was named Johnson, and was Bremer's partner in his last business which was a sporting goods and gun shop. She said she had more info, but has never returned and doesn't answer message attempts.