doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com I bought a Ballard action.

I bought this lever back in the late 70's, don't remember who I got it from. It was a cast lever that took lots of work to finish but well worth the effort.

I like this Pope-style lever for both offhand and bench rest shooting. Does anyone make these nowadays?

http://www.singleshotrifles.com/levers.html

BTW, is that rifle really as red as it appears? Maybe my LCD screen is overly red but that thing is bright!

I've used most of 'em and although the Shelton/Remington is to me the most attractive, nevertheless the Pope fits my hand MUCH better!
Regards, Joe

Yep, quite a bit of red in that stock, I like red.

A friend of mine and I are always looking at reproducing finishes for rifles like the Winchester. They can be notably red, but this rifle seems at least as red as a Winnie and then some. I don't dislike it, but I have not seen a Ballard quite that way.

Brent

I don't remember all the details of this Ballard stock. When we put it together I do remember that the buttplate I had was a little short on top. If you look at the picture you can see the filler piece of ebony.

Michael, you're a big man and what buttplate fits you in offhand the best? I'm not tall,at 5'11 but misspent my youth as a powerlifter and none of the buttplates I ever tried allowed me to comfortably shoot offhand. They all seemed to want to fit at the elbow and not at the shoulder.My son is big too and would like a schuetzen style to shoot.

All the Schuetzen buttplates seem to fit okay.

I was taught that the pronged schuetzen buttplate does not go on the shoulder but at the top of bicep. With my rifle turned sideways to the ground with the cheekpiece straight up I slide the buttplate over the top of the bicep then rotate the rifle up straight which will bring the elbow 90 degrees to your body.

Does that make any sense at all?

The method I described above works really well (FOR ME) on rifles like the one below that have a deep schuetzen buttplate.

Yeah, I understand what you mean. They showed us that with the M14 with the trap open on the buttplate. I have tried that with the schuetzens in my buddies collection, a Zischang, a Berg,Schoyen and with my larger than average arms it is very tight to downright impossible to use. I just wonder what pattern buttplate would be the biggest. I like the ones with 2 fully developed prongs but I suppose looks might have to play second fiddle to practicality.I guess I'm asking what buttlplate allows the most room. I have a nearly finished buttstock for a Ballard and a hiwall in factory schuetzen style and I have access to pattern making and casting facilities to modify a buttplate to fit me and also fit the factory style inletting if need be.