laststandonzombieisland

Born in Massachusetts in the 1820s, Charles Ballard was a machinist with a good eye for details.
In 1861, Ballard filed patent No. 33,631 for a single-shot rifle that reloaded a cartridge from the
breech with a rolling block mechanism.

Deep cut rifling grooves helped keep the rounds on target at extremely long ranges. This was a big thing at the time as almost every rifle of the day was a muzzle loading cap-and-ball type. Ball and Williams, Ballard’s employer during the Civil War (1861-65), made some 16,000. After the war, however, sales slowed. Ballard stood on shaky ground then with only a few more years on his patent so he turned around and sold the rights to another small company, who resold them, who
resold them, who resold them until….

Enter John Marlin

Read the rest in my column at Marlin Forums