The FORUMS at BPCR.net

Hello all

My name is Tangara and I have and interesting situation. First of all my main area of collecting is in the military surplus realm. I have been officially collecting since last march, unofficially since I was a kid and wanted a Mauser broom handle pistol. I received my C&R FFL in June.

Here is my situation, my wife’s uncle recently passed away and his widow called my father in law and said I have all these guns and do not know what to do with them will you help me dispose of them. There are 105 long guns and 35 pistols. Many are C&R and a good number are in the 1K range. If I personally could get the financing to buy the whole collection I would and sell the majority of it little by little. But unfortunately I do not have the assets 50K to 75K to do this. I personally do not want to see it all go to a dealer, but have limited say in this matter.

In this collection there are six Ballard rifles. A couple are original Ballards and a couple are of Marlin manufacture and a few are custom built on Ballard receivers. I will post some pictures of one of the custom 22Lr rifles. This is a Axel W. Peterson of Denver rifle with a J. Unertl scope and Schuetzen style stock. I was wondering if you good people could help me identify and place a general value range on some of these rifles.

Tangara,

Welcome to the site, and beautiful rifle! If that piece is representative of the quality of rifles in the collection, I'd recommend that your wife's aunt contact one of the Auction houses that specializes in firearms, and get an accurate, professional appraisal of the collection. That way she can get a fair price for the collection...piece-mealing it out is probably not a good idea.

Rock Island Auctions in Illinois specializes in fine firearms, as does Greg Martin Auctions in, I believe, California. A web search should turn up either place easily.

Greg

I would second that, and that is a handsome rifle indeed. Seek professional help if it's gotta be sold.....

"BUY THE BALLARDS"

Mortgage the car and house if need be...

Tangara

Your .22 looks like my 3F ballard action.The wood and barrel are different,but the action looks the same.

Dave

It's very hard to say if the "Peterson Ballard" is made from a 3F, since there are many Ballards with pistol gripped frames that it could have been customized from.
Axel Peterson was a partner to the famous George Schoyen, and upon Schoyen's retirement and death, took over the business. Peterson is best known for his .22 caliber schuetzen rifles, many of which were relined from centerfire models, and extractors converted to rimfire use. He also made telescopic sights that were pretty good for that time.
Peterson was active in the Denver area as a custom gunsmith from the late 1800's. He came from Stockholm Sweden in 1877, and worked as a typesetter in Chicago, before coming to the Denver area. Peterson was an avid, and great shooter, besides being an accomplished gunsmith. He started his gunsmithing in 1886, but did not make barrels until he partnered with Schoyen in 1903.
In 1916 he took over Schoyen's business, and ran it with his son until his death in 1946. His son Roy, who learned from AW, took over and continued to run the business after his father's death.
Hope this helps.

Tangara,
Is the top of the receiver on your Ballard flat or dished? if it's dished, it's a #3 (tho per Dutcher's book a very few were flat). The screw in the right side by the firing pin indicates this is a centerfire action converted to rimfire. Rimfire actions do not have this screw. Does the serial number on the breechblock (# is stamped on both halves at the back on top)? If the numbers don't match it could mean that the gun was originally a single trigger gun and the double set breechblock added later. I mention this since the gun has a block at the muzzle for mounting a front sight. Petersen also made many prone/position target rifles (he was very well known for his .22 barrels, while Schoyen .22's are extremely rare). These prone/position rifles were required to have single triggers to meet NRA rule requirements.
I have 2 .22 Petersen's that have centerfile actions with the barrels drilled off-center. This permitted switching barrels on the action so it could be shot as a .22 rimfire or centerfire.
Trying to figure out some of these old Ballards can be quite challenging since so many were tinkered with.
'Hope this helps.
Dave

Thanks guys for all the information. This gun is going to the auctioned on April 8, 2006. I would by it but it is not in my area of collecting. I would like to post a listing of what is going to be sold there will be around 100 long guns and around 25 pistols plus 60 Case knifes new in box. Who do I contact hear to ask permission to post this information.