A Rare Ballard Patent Rimfire Cavalry Carbine, 37 ½” overall, 22” .44 calibre octagonal to round barrel with dove tailed blade fore sight, folding rear sight graduated to 100, 250 & 500 yards, the breech end of barrel marked ‘'No. 10158’', rounded dropping block central hammer receiver marked ‘'BALLARD’'S PATENT NOV 5 1861’' on the right hand side & ‘BALL & WILLIAMS/Worcester Mass.’ over ‘MERWIN & BRAY AGTS/NEW YORK’ on the left. ‘M.M’ (Miles Moulton) and ‘G.H’ (George Haines) inspection initials on various components . Two piece downward hinged breech with curved trigger guard lever, with manually operated sliding ejector. Two piece walnut stock & fore end with an iron crescent butt plate, ‘MM’ cartouche on the left side of the stock. With two sling swivels.
Circa 1863
In very good condition, most original finish, appears to be unfired, mint bore.
This is a very fine example of a rare martially inspected Ball & Williams carbine that was manufactured circa 1864 to 1865, Ball & Williams received a U.S. Government contract for 5,000 of these carbines in January of 1864. They delivered 1,000 by March 16, 1864 & 500 by August 1, 1864 before forfeiting the balance of the contract because of higher prices from their Kentucky contracts. 1,200 were sent to Vermont and another 600 were rejected by the government and sold on the open market.