Ballard No. 1 Hunter's Rifle

About the Ballard No. 1 Hunter's Rifle

The Ballard No. 1 Hunter's Rifle is a single-shot, breech-loading falling-block rifle built on Charles Henry Ballard's 1861 patent and produced by Marlin Firearms of New Haven, Connecticut. Introduced in 1876 as one of the lighter sporting models of the Marlin-Ballard line, the No. 1 Hunter's was offered in .44 rimfire and .44 centerfire and fitted with a round barrel of roughly 26 to 30 inches. The action was worked by a finger lever that dropped the breechblock, and the rifle incorporated Marlin's automatic extractor and a reversible firing pin so a single arm could be set up for either rimfire or centerfire ammunition. Barrels were typically rifled with six concentric grooves with a right-hand twist, and better examples carried high-quality double-set triggers.

The lightest of the New Ballard hunting rifles, the No. 1 Hunter's traded the heft of the Pacific buffalo guns for a handy round-barrel sporter — a reversible firing pin let one rifle feed either .44 rimfire or centerfire, making it a versatile small-bore companion for the late black-powder frontier.

Ballard No. 1 Hunter's Rifle specifications

The No. 1 Hunter's was the entry sporting rifle of the New Ballard family marketed by Marlin from the mid-1870s, sitting below the heavier No. 1 1/2 Hunter's and No. 5 Pacific buffalo models. Listed weights, barrel lengths and chamberings varied between individual guns; figures here reflect a typical .44-rimfire example.