Yes, I know that the action is a Ballard,.  

What competition might this have been for?  
This front rest is like none I have seen before.  Rifle came with two other similar front rests, this one fit the barrel on the rifle.

Purchased with the plan to disassemble and sell the parts, but like to make sure I am not tearing apart something interesting.

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You sure it’s a Ballard?

Following....I have seen Ballard's for $495 all the way to over $35,000

Actually Marlin-Ballard, but looking more for information on whatever rimfire competition/game this may have been used for, or if it was just one guys experiment.

Certainly, you would be tearing apart something "interesting".

If you take the front rest off, there's much more disassembly you can do.  

Who, what, where would that barrel go except on that rarified action?

Ditto for the stock, it seems so dedicated to that action, the potential buyers would be few.  

Am I mistaken about this?

People are odd about taking guns apart.  
Someone wants a bolt to restore grandpas deer rifle.   They could buy another rifle, remove bolt and trash the rest for the (made up price) of $200.
Instead, they will go on eBay and buy the bolt separately for $300.  

I know this for a fact, as I sell to people like this all of the time.

The following example is an estimate for demonstration purposes:

This rifle and the three rests would sell as a group for about the price I paid.

The action alone sells for 1.5x what I paid.
The barrel can fit any action if you have a lathe and will bring about .5x of the purchase price.
The stock will also bring about .5x of purchase price.
The three barrel rests are the wildcard.  No idea if they are worth trying to sell, or just consign them to a local auction.

So parting out the rifle is worth 2.5x+ what I paid.

That said, I will keep firearms and kit together if they have an interesting history.....and I can recoup my cost.

I wonder if it was set up for testing the accuracy of someones reloads.

My bad.  Forgot to include the caliber.

This is a .22LR.

Have you done any shooting with it?

It looks to be a hodge podge but if it is accurate, then nothing else really matters.

Nah.
Only bought it last night and don't have any plans to shoot it.

You have to see what it will do with good ammo. It's a .22, you could run 5k rounds down the barrel and you'd never know it.

I would keep it as is, and shoot the fire out of it. If it is as accurate as it looks.

I buy and sell guns to pay the bills.
Can't keep them all, and I have had a Haenal( East German Anschutz clone) .22 for 30+ years that shoots better than I ever will.

Possibly a schutzen type rifle single shot rifle association used some odd old school front rests like that.
Set up for along tube traditional scope like a unertl
Interesting for sure.
Definitely a put together gun so if you are not into shooting it, breaking it apart to sell the action / barrel etc to make a profit is not a horrible thing.

I like the action.  It looks nice.  I don't know if it is or isn't but it looks nice.  Is that a set trigger?  How does it feel?

I like the butt stock but not the butt plate.

I like the forearm but not the cap.

I like the barrel but it would be better if it were black.

The tuner is fine but would be even better on a blackened barrel.


That benchrest is so HORRIBLE, I think I like it.  It make me want to design and build one of my own.  Shouldn't it be mounted under the center of gravity?

THIS
Please don't tear this apart.
If you really want to get rid of it, don't part it out, PM me.  
It's old school benchrest.
I got this at an auction where an old Schuetzen shooter had about 100 such rifles, including a world record holder.   It's a breech-seating .40 Krag.

Money isn't everything in life.  Things have value other than just money, especially nostalgic things like "Grandpa's deer rifle".

Only to the Grandson or other family. That's the thing I see all the time. People talk about not parting stuff out but the majority don't want the piece in question and certainly not for anything close to market value.

It's more than just someone I knew, although I certainly have things in that category.   It's a bit hard to put into words, but I've bought many guns (and tools) that were owned by people I didn't know personally, but what I have of theirs keeps them alive, in a way, and a connection to, and keeps alive, the culture of a bygone era.   I have a machinist's Kennedy box full of machinist tools that came from the estate of a local machinist who was active in the heyday of the machine tool trade, especially in the "Precision Valley", where that all started.   It still has his name tag on the box and his color code on most of the tools.   In fact, I have a couple of boxes from a couple different men, now that i think about it.  

I have guns, and support obsolete calibers, from the 1930s era, the heyday of precision single shot rifles.   I have several old custom single shots made by a variety of well-known old-school gunsmiths from the mid 20th century.   I feel a certain connection to these people, even though I never met them in person.   I often save obituary info from the people who used to own guns I now own, especially old single shots.   In some cases, I've even talked to the families of some of the former owners of some of these guns, to get more info and a better feel, or even a photo, for the person who's no longer with us, but I'm now the caretaker of what they had.

For example, here is the obituary of the man who used to own that .40 Krag I pictured above (wish I'd known him in person - he had a lot of very cool old single shot rifles and vintage scopes):  https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/nhregister/name/andrew-zahornacky-obituary?id=35336428

Agreed, but it does pay my bills.

I get it I really do. The issue is that people that feel like you do are vastly outnumbered by the amount of stuff out there.

I am with Jodan....find someone who will appreciate it.

I want it something fierce as I love Jodan's rifle....but I just bought a new car and I have 7 projects all in need of getting finished.  DAMMIT!!!!

BTW:  those look like JW Fecker scope mounts on that barrel.

Marked "SS over M"
There was a Unertl mounted on it that sold separately.

Did you ever decide what you're going to do with the rifle?

Selling it.
Been too busy to do more research, take it apart or list it for sale.

So, in limbo for now.

Did you see the PM I sent you weeks ago about it?   I offered to buy it from you if you'd tell me how much you want for it.

I got this rifle today.  I'm looking forward to shooting it, as soon as I can find time to open it up and see why it won't stay cocked.
It's a very unique specimen, which is what attracted me to it.
I also gotta say UtahShotgunner is a class act all the way.   Very smooth and accommodating to work with, rifle packed exceptionally well.

Please post info when you can.  I'm intrigued by this thing you now have.  

Jodan, if it's like half the singles I have worked on: someone did a "trigger job" to it.

I have a guy that did my Stevens Tip Up project which had a completely jack sear notch, half cock notch and a badly dammaged sear.  He did a bang up job.  It literally looked FACTORY new.

I had another project for him but he has dropped off of my radar.  DAMN IT!

P.S.  Glad this was saved!  You must print targets when you get it running!

Hammer stayed back when I looked at it at the beginning of the auction.
When I picked it up after paying, it did not.......   Joys of auction purchases.  
Hopefully it turns to be something simple like another auction attendee messing with the adjustment.  

Payment arrived in yesterdays mail so all is good on this end.  

Now to turn to the 10-12 other rifles I need to disassemble for parts.   (Nothing as interesting or intriguing as this one.)

Well, a couple people asked about results, so that motivated me to make sure this project did not get back-burnered like 100 other gun projects I have.    So I disassembled the action last night.   I wasn't sure how it disassembled, but it was all pretty simple and straight-forward.   Actually, first, I tried screwing the set-trigger adjustment screw in and out some, to see if that changed anything, or if I could even feel the hammer at all with the trigger.   Nope, no apparent connection at all between hammer and trigger.

Once I opened it up, it was pretty clear what the problem was.   First, there was some crud sort of like tumbling media in behind the actuating lever.  And even just removing the lever showed me the inside was all caked with a combination of super-old dried gunk and a thick, black, nasty tar-like goo.  I separated the hammer part and the triggers part.   Just as cruddy and gummed up in there, too.   Once I pulled on the hammer sear bar a couple times through its intended full range of motion, it then caught the hammer OK.   Same with the set trigger mechanism.   Once I manually moved the parts a couple times through their full range of motion, the set triggers worked as they should, too.

So I threw all of it into my solvent tank.  I didn't get to it today, but probably soon, I will remove the parts, scrub them, lubricate it nicely, then reassemble it.  Then mount a Unertl on it and shoot some match ammo with it.
Some pics:

That is surprisingly common.
Picked up two Remington 760s at the same auction and while not as bad is the Ballard, did require a full detail strip to get them clean.

Well, I FINALLY get to update this thread!  It's been a long and slow part-time process.

So, after getting the gunk and goo out of the action, that worked.  Then I mounted a Unertl 20x on the target blocks.   Normal spacing on the blocks is 7.2" for known values from the adjuster clicks, but these were 11" apart.   Fine, except that forced the scope so far forward I couldn't get any eye relief except by climbing way up the stock.   So I drilled and tapped new scope block holes at 7.2".  I was able to get it mounted on the mill without having to remove the barrel.


Between being busy with many things, like "getting ready for winter" season, and lousy weather, I still hadn't shot it.  Today was 40 degrees and sunny.  40 degrees in other 3 seasons seems cold, but 40 degrees in January seems quite warm.    So I brought it out and shot it at 50 yards.



I'd also laser-engraved the chambering on the side of the barrel.   I never understand why a gunsmith barrels a rifle and doesn't mark the cartridge chambering on it.  I have lots like that, which is what originally prompted me to buy my laser engraver.   I also polished the barrel while I had it all apart working on it.
Anyway, after firing the first shot, I discovered what I hadn't noticed before; the rifle has no extractor; just a slot for manual extraction.  So I will have to make a little screwdriver-like tool to extract the cases.   For today, I just used the mini-screwdriver tool on my Swiss Champ.  Quite tight chamber, too, BTW.  Those rounds definitely don't just drop in.   The action is nice and tight, and the triggers work beautifully.


Did some scope adjustments - 2 shots each into #1, 2, and 3 in the pic, then put 5 rounds into one hole (#4).   Then I figured "aim small, hit small", so I made a 1/2" dot and fired 10 rounds at that (#5).  Not too bad, considering I have ever-worsening glaucoma in my right eye and I never could adjust the blurriness out of the scope.


Anyway, it's a very cool and unique rifle and bipod rest, and I thank OP @UtahShotgunner  very much for not only not chopping it, but also for selling it to me for a very fair price.

Wow!, you got a winner there.  Good for you.

Great post, too.  Thanks for the update.

A better outcome than me parting it out.

You have the "extractor".  It is threaded into the top of the leg on the front rest.

Well done!  A beautiful and unique .22LR.  

@Jodan1776

Scrolling back thru this thread, I missed your post on the .40 bench gun when you put it up.

Nice!
Exact caliber?


I have a Siamese Mauser and a .30 barrel blank.
Some day it will be a .30-40

Ha, that is great - a hidden secret!

This might be the most unique 22LR rifle I have ever seen.  That it actually shoots well takes it over the top.


Tell me something, which photos better portray the actual colors of the wood?  Is it the lighter "blonde" color of the original photos or the darker "walnut" of the latter?

Oh cool - thanks for the tip.   I'd seen it way back, but didn't know what it was, then forgot it

It's a .40 Krag, which is .30-40 Krag with straightwall case.   Cast bullets are breech-seated into the lands with a special tool, then case with primer and powder is inserted into action behind that.   Case does not touch bullet.   Breech-seating was the way of great precision in old-school benchrest.

Well, my pic was toward the sun, with the shaded part of the rifle toward the camera.   This is one I took from the sun side:

Buttstock is darker than the forend.

I know breech-seating but the only rifle I ever saw set up for it was a .32-40.  
Hadn't heard of the .40 Krag, but that is not a shooting world I have played in.

I'd never heard of any of it.   I bought it because it was so different, then I had to research what it all meant and what it took to make it work.   Hardest part was figuring out what bullet mould to buy, as it came with cases, but unfortunately no bullets or bullet info.

I'll say it again, that's a very cool rifle you have and a nice scope.  

I have a 12X Lyman Supertarget spot on my Remington Model 37, which is every bit as good as, or possibly better than, my Anschutz.

Yours is over the top.  It's weird (unique), but in a good way, and still manages to be super-cool.

Congrats!,  Enjoy it.

And here's the rifle's final (for me) resting place.   I wanted to keep the unique rest attached, so it was challenging to figure out how & where to mount it.   It's been sitting on one of my benches, but I needed to find a better home for it, so here it is.

What a cool rifle and thread. As the bishop says in the old joke, “You fuckers are alright.”

Fantastic. Thanks to you and US for preserving this piece of history. Doesn’t hurt that it’s a good shooter.