Ballard Rifle loads

[William H. Shuey]

A team member has acquired a Ballard Rifle and had it re-fitted for 45 Colt. Any body have advice on loads for this baby??

Bill Shuey
1st Maine Hvy. Art.
whshuey@verizon.net

[John Holland]

My advice would be to not overload it with heavy bullets and hot loads of Swiss. If you do you'll end up cracking the frame at its weakest point, that being the square edges behind the breech block.

JDH

[Jack C., 69th NY]

I have to agree with John's advice. Ballard receivers are cast and may crack or the already present crack might spread if too hot a load is used. The original .46 RF round used a 300 grain bullet and 40 grains of powder. I do not know if the powders were f, ff, fff :?:

I have had good results, in a Brown with the original rifling, using a RCBS .45-250-FN mold. It casts a 250 grain .454 flat nose bullet. This is backed up by 25 grains of 2f or 1 1/2 f Swiss powder. This is a relatively mild load and should not be a problem for the Ballard receivers. Lyman makes several .454 molds in the 250 grain range. The 454424 is similar to the RCBS mold and the 454190 has a round nose.

I also shoot a Brown Ballard that is lined with a TJ's liner that mikes to .457. In it I use Rapine's 457250 backed up with 25 grains of ff Swiss.

The N-SSA has several very successful Ballard shooters using a bullet in the 350 grain range backed up by approximately 35 grains of powder. It is my understanding that there have been some cracked receivers but I do not know if these cracks were caused by the heavier loads or they existed prior to being shot with these heavier loads.

There is a very talented and knowledgeable gunsmith and shooter in Cincinnati that has worked on dozens of Ballards. He has successfully repaired cracked receivers and his recommendation is to shoot mild loads as opposed to heavy ones.

Let's hope that other Ballard shooters will chime in with their ideas.

Hope this helps you out. :)

Jack Conway

[hp gregory, 9128]

try 24 grains of 3f goex, cow filler and a 250 grain pistol bullet. use a magnum pistol primer. this load is easy on the frame and shoots well in my ballard. hp gregory