Rabbit,
This single shot photo is from Grant's book "More Single Shot Rifles". Even under the scrutiny of Grant's careful eye, the action shows no sign of being an original Ballard #6 model. This gun is signed "E. Flues E. Sag. Mich" and 1885 and #1...it would appear that this was Emil's first gun, a guild gun of sorts...
This is a little choppy in terms of sentence structure, but I'll just blurt it out...if he was in East Saginaw in 1885 and produced this gun, it might be safe to say that he just completed his apprenticeship or nearly so... Then in January of 1895 he applied for a patent while living in Bay City, Michigan...in an interview he stated that early on in his career he worked out west......from 95 - 1906 he was in business with Robert Wrege...then he moved to NYS...that leaves only that 9-10 year window between '85 and '95 when he could have been out west fixin' Colts and the like...
I forget exactly and my Flues folder is not within reach, but the problem is, that date of 1885 put's him somewhere around 16-17 years old at the time of producing this single shot...I'm gonna hafta review my own notes again...I'm not as frosty as I used to be...
