Wicked Bayonet - 1860s - 1870s Era

[Pete123]

I hate to say it but I would much rather get shot than get run through with this bad boy.

It was attached to the Ballard Carbine shown below.  The Ballard rifles were among the most popular with sportsman and hunters in the 1800s.

You've probably seen Westerns where the gun has two triggers and is accurate for quite a distance.  That is a Ballard.  Different model that this one.

This gun has a reversible firing pin so it can be either rim fire or center fire.  

I may actually shoot this gun.  The metal is solid and the wood is in really good shape.  In looking at my old guns,  most of them have good metal, but the stocks and handrails could break if I shoot them.

 

 

 

[Sidecarist]

Nice looking Ballard. I rebarreled one in 22 hornet years ago and it was fun to shoot. I real bear to remove the barrel though, square threads, rust dating back more than a century,  iron receiver, etc...

I never sweet one with a bayonet though. What caliber is it?

 

[Pete123]

It's a .46 caliber.  I'm actually having a hard time figuring out the story on this one.  I looks like a Civil War Ballard Carbine and had the bayonet, yet it is a Brown Manuf. model.  Brown didn't begin manuf of these until 1869.  According to the NRA museum, these never took off with the military and weren't used by the military after the Civil War. 

That article did say that KY bought a bunch of them, so it may have come from there.  There are several KY related guns in the estate purchase I made.  

[Ugly]

Concur with rather being shot, geez!

Very nice piece of equipment there!

[xtriggerman]

That looks a bit like like a French Chassepot Bayonet. If it is, he place and date of man is on the top edge of the blade just forward of the cross guard. Too bad its so pitted but you can clean it up with 0000 steel wool with out harming the original surface. And yeah, Sidecarist is right, what a great rebarrel project on the Ballard.

Edited May 23, 2016 by xtriggerman

[btq96r]

15 hours ago, Ugly said:

Concur with rather being shot, geez!

Very nice piece of equipment there!

He's got a ton of stuff like that.  His apartment looked like a gun museum the last time I was there.

[Pete123]

More info....

‘Sword Bayonet’ is the proper term for the pics below.  I haven’t been able to completely identify it.  It is very similar to the French French Model 1866 "Chassepot" Yataghan Sword Bayonet.  The primary difference it the crossguard.

 

I think this one may be a Fench model, though the crossguard is different and it doesn’t have marks on the top of the blade normally found on French sword bayonets.

The French model is the most copied sword bayonet of all time.  I found several American made copies whose crossguard is more like this one.  However, all the American ones I found have a brass crossguard and most of them don’t have the screw attachment in the crossguard. 

The French 1866 wasn’t used in The Civil War.  The Ballard Carbine it was attached to was a Brown Manuf, which was also made after the Civil War, leading me to believe this was used by the Cavalry after the Civil War.

The Blade is 22 ½ inches in length, just as is the French Model 1866