This last week turned out to be a good week for me. This last Tuesday, I got a copy of John Dutchers book at a very reasonable price, $145 with shipping.  Then on Saturday morning I picked up a #9 Ballard in .32-40 for what I considered a fair price.  It has a 28" barrel with mint bore, wind gage front sight, mid-range vernier tang rear and half round palm rest.  The barrel and forearm serial numbers match, but the stock and butt plate were from a higher serial numbered rifle.  Overall, a very nice rifle in great condition.

TimGE wrote on Jul 13^th, 2026 at 3:07pm:


Sounds like a great beginning to a very happy Ballard year! You'll absolutely love John's book and constantly learn from it. One of the finest gun books around, regardless of brand of guns. It's what every gun expert should look at when they're putting together a gun book to see how well the index is, and the fantastic technical data inside.

I've taken the rifle apart and given it a thorough cleaning. I removed the barrel so I could clean the barrel and receiver threads and slug the barrel.  Slug miked out at .321 and it is a mint clean bore.  I don't think this rifle was hardly used.

I always thought Bill Brophy did a good job on the Marlin and 1903 Springfield books but the photography alone is better in Dutcher's book.

I'm working on the pictures so I hope to have some posted soon.
Tim

TimGE wrote Today at 2:37am:


Removing the barrel is pretty aggressive cleaning! Wow! I've had a lot of Ballard barrels off for one reason or another, but never to clean.
Bill Brophy did an excellent job on anything Marlin related, except the Ballard rifles that really put John Marlin into the business of rifle making. Bill wasn't well versed on Ballard rifles, so much of what he covered came from old Marlin catalogs, and very few actual hands on inspection.