SPORTERIZED BROWN MFG. CO. BALLARD MILITARY RIFLE CHAMBERED IN 44 RF WITH RARE *DUAL IGNITION

Description:
Barrel shortened to 22 inch carbine length. Very good bore is fairly bright with strong rifling and shows scattered very light pitting. German silver blade front and tip-up rear sights. Under barrel manual ejector. Color case hardened round top receiver has faded to a mottled gray, and is marked "BROWN MFG. CO. NEWBURYPORT, MASS/BALLARD'S PATENT/NOV. 5, 1861.  Walnut stocks with the forearm shortened show handling marks and have a coat of finish added. 
 
*About Dual Ignition Ballard Rifles. The breechblocks of some Ballard rim fire rifles were made with both firing pins and nipples for percussion caps. Typically the RimFire cartridge design was limited to the single one time use of shell casings as there was no way to replace the internal rim fire primer. This limited guns using rim fire cartridges to the available factory loaded ammunition on hand. The dual ignition design allowed shooters to reuse what had previously been single use spent rim fire shell casings by reloading them. This reloading was done with a set of tools; A Punch used to put a hole through the center of the base of the shell casing. A Scoop used to measure the powder charge placed in the shell casing. And a Die Set used to seat a new bullet into the shell casing. These reloaded cartridges were then able to be fired by means of using an external percussion cap as the primer to ignite the powder. When using new unfired rim fire cartridges, the firing pin would strike the rim of the cartridge igniting the internal primer and powder charge. When using reloaded cartridges, the shooter would also have to place an external percussion cap on the nipple when using a reloaded cartridges. Then when fired, the  hammer would then strike the external percussion cap igniting powder charge through the hole in the base of the cartridge.

Leroy Merz Antique Firearms specializes in antique and vintage Winchesters and other fine American firearms. Since 1965 Mr. Merz has taken part in the world of firearms and has been a contributor to many well known reference books. We have hundreds of additional guns in every price range at our home online. Search for Merz Antiques in google.
 

Antique: Yes
Rifle Caliber: .44 Rimfire

Price: $1,875.00