How strong are Ballards when using smokeless? I'm not trying to magnumize anything, but I have been offered several from a late friend's estate and was considering one or two of them. The calibers I believe are .38-55, .40-60, & .40-63 Ballard. I don't know whether they are Ballard or Marlin manufacture and my plan was to use unique or 4227 to duplicate bp velocities and pressures.

I forget who on this forum has the Tag Line ref Ballard's"

'Ballard's may be weaker but they sure are neater..!"

I doubt you could go wrong with any of the 'Forged Action Ballard's'

I am fortunate to have one Ballard, It's a "Cast" action in 32 rimfire.
Eventually to be re chambered in a mild center fire cartridge that can be obtained over the counter for the grandson.  

I'd really enjoy owning a Forged Ballard...   

 
1Hawkeye wrote on May 16^th, 2026 at 5:12pm:

You will always be safe with .22 rimfire. But we already knew that.  I spent several years building a few hundred of those actions, and saw a lot of restoration and a few warranty jobs come through. Forged actions will take a lot, forever it seems, up to a point. Above that point, sooner or later, cracks will appear at the 2 corners of the breech blocks and the linkage gets sloppy, the block eventually won't stay up. Modern steel just move moves the curve a little higher up the pressure. I have seen a modern steel (8620) action ruined beyond repair in 1/2 a box of  1886 Winchester loads. 
I have seen a few develop those little corner cracks in large (45-90+) calibers with compressed loads of fine grained black powder and 550gr+ bullets (probably over bore sized). All those loading techniques will raise pressure and were not common in the original 1880's loadings. 
I think the schuetzen boys have proved you can shoot a long time, maybe til doomsday with smokeless in a good Ballard. But there is not the forgiveness of a highwall there, don't make an "oops", be very sensible and you will most likely be fine.

RJ, that's marlinman.

oneatatime wrote on May 18^th, 2026 at 5:29pm:


Thank You!

The way to reduce stress on Ballard rifles is to own ten or fifteen Ballards. If a shooter has but one Ballard rifle it will be shot much more often which of course even though it will last many thousands of rounds, eventually like anything else it will wear out or need adjustments or a complete rebuild. 

The more Ballards you own the more you reduce the amount of rounds cycled through each rifle. It stands to reason. 

When your wife asks you, for heavens sake Bill, how many Ballards does one man need?  Tell her ten or fifteen and explain why. Stand your ground. Don't mention her shoe collection...

calledflyer wrote yesterday at 10:44am:


Winchester single shots are like small block chevys. Everyone has one. Bullards, Ballards, Hepburns, even Stevens rifles. A Wurfflein, something unusual, something interesting. That's what I like. I used to hunt with a guy who bragged about his 300 Winchester. One day near Oak City Utah hunting miniature deer, Bruce got to bragging to me about how geat his 300 Win was. I had heard enough of it so I dared him to shoot a boulder across the draw, maybe 75 yards distant. Boulder was about three feet across. He stood up and commenced to blazing away and never hit that boulder. 
Nothing wrong with the SBC except it would have been a lot better if they had put the distributor on the correct end like a SBF.