Ballard 1885 (6.5x55mm Swede)
Kim du Toit
May 20, 2005
12:00 AM CDT
I know, I haven’t even washed this year’s Idaho dust off the F-150, and here I am, already talking about next year’s BoomerShoot.
But a number of issues were bugging me this year, specifically about the type and quality of rifles to be found there, and what I brought.
There are essentially three kinds of rifles to be found at BoomerShoot: “space" guns (beautiful but hopelessly-impractical rifles, made and used only for benchrest shooting); “black" guns (black compo stocks, black barrels, “sniper"-type rifles); and hunting rifles, pressed into service for BoomerShoot—and which are, by and large, left behind by the other two types.
Next year, I want to do better; but I’m not interested in owning a space gun or a sniper rifle. As far as the latter is concerned, I’m hopelessly old-fashioned, and I think that black rifles look like crap. And I’m too much of a Cheap Bastard to drop a few grand on a bench-grade rifle.
However, as all Longtime Readers know, I am a hopeless romantic when it comes to old and beautiful rifles.
So here’s what I’m going to try to get for BoomerShoot 2006: something old-fashioned that looks beautiful and yet can deliver sub-minute of angle at 400 yards; in a caliber I love (ie. an old one) which can nevertheless still deliver enough energy to pop a boomer.
Sounds impossible, doesn’t it? It isn’t. I just have to set aside my Cheap Bastardy for the occasion, and order up one of these:
This is a modern copy of the Winchester 1885 High Wall single-shot rifle, with a 28” half-octagon barrel, a single set trigger, and chambered in 6.5x55mm Swede. Yes, Ballard Rifles offers just this configuration.
But the problem is that the Ballard Win 1885 doesn’t come with iron sights, and my eyes are too crap to see the damn boomers downrange anyway, so…
I’ll top it with a scope of as-yet undetermined manufacture:
[pauses to let the anguished howls from the purists die down]
Oh, shuddup. If everyone was a purist, there wouldn’t be any of those disgusting black plastic stocks on rifles— it would be wood only, as God and John Moses Browning intended. (And my eyes aren’t good enough anymore to use a “ladder” aperture sight, although don’t rule that out.)
But if I can’t even see the damn boomer, it kinda takes away the whole purpose of getting a good long-range rifle, doesn’t it?
Here, by the way, are a few detailed glimpses of the action and woodwork:
And if that doesn’t get your heart pounding, I don’t know what will.
Oh, wait a moment; speaking of heart-pounding: the Ballard Winchester 1885 High Wall retails for [gulp] around $3,675.
I don’t care. As I said earlier, something had to give, and in this case, it was Cheap Bastardy—and I have nearly a whole year to save up for it. And if I didn’t spend the money on a fine rifle, I’d just waste it on unnecessary stuff like the kids’ college funds, or something.
And beauty for its own sake is a perfectly valid argument, anyway.
I may not hit as many boomers as the pros with their sniper rifles and bench cannons, but sure as hell, I’ll have the best-looking rifle in Idaho.
Gratuitous Gun Pics
