Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Mule Deer's Ross Rifle Article

In the Jan. 2020 issue of Rifle magazine John Barsness has a very interesting and informative article on the Ross rifles.

I really enjoyed it and learned a lot. I encourage everyone to check it out.

Same here. Neat article. Have a friend in Canada with a 280 Ross. Pretty neat darned rifle.

I'll definitely be checking that out.
There are quite a few Ross rifles up here. I remember learning in high school (1970's) that the Canadian troops in WWI who carried the Ross military rifle liked its accuracy and handling, but that it did not stand up to the mucky conditions of trench warfare in places like Passchendaele as well as the Lee Enfield SMLE, which became the standard-issue arm.
I'm interested to hear about Ross sporting rifles.

The Ross was fine with Cdn made ammunition, but a combination of tight rifle tolerances and the sloppier (read larger) dimensions of the British made 303 ammunition were problems. As a result, the Ross had jamming and failure to feed problems with the British stuff.

Every model had a hockey sock full of mods done to them. They should never have been adopted as our military arm, or made for sale to other world militaries.

Ross rifles were tossed by ordinary soldiers in favour of the British made No 1s. Many battlefield pick ups. The British ammunition functioned correctly in them. By 1916, the Cdn government decided to go with the No 1. It was one of very few intelligent decisions made by the govt wrt our small arms.

The Ross was a great sporting rifle, but was a poor military arm. The Mk3 had the bolt assembly problems. It could be reassembled with the bolt head rotated 180 degrees out. This led to the everything coming apart upon firing. Subsequent repairs saw a rivet on the sleeve. Soldiers knew this bolt was modified not to come apart.I

Charlie Ross should have been hanged along with select members of the Cdn govt for that fiasco. Improprieties with govt contracts continue to this day.

Steve,

I discussed all those issues, in more detail, in the article--but thanks for backing me up....

Mine was a quick, Internets post. Books have been written detailing the history, and shady govt dealings that put this rifle into service. And the no. of mods and major (MK) changes made to the Ross rifle line.

I have what we refer to up here as a 1910 (Mk III) sitting idle in my gun locker. The metal is in great shape, and it's complete with the original rear sight, but the stock is pooched. The stampings indicate that it's had a bunch of mods done to it, including the riveted bolt sleeve, but oddly, the chamber wasn't been reamed to accept the British ammunition. That, to me, is wonderful.

When we had the gun registration going on up here, we discovered that Rosses weren't serialized and required a sticky, attached to the stock. If the thing came off, the owner was held legally responsible for having an unserialized firearm. Another of the stupid laws we had going on here for a while. In fact, this was how I ended up with my Ross. The former owner was an older fellow who didn't know what to do to get it registered. He gave it to me to get rid of it.

One day, I hope to find someone who makes a stock for the 1910. The wood is not much good.

I might have to buy that issue.
I've always sorta been fascinated by the Ross, though I don't think I've ever actually held one.

I read about them a bit as a kid, and I think Seyfried did an article on them around 15 years or so ago.

I; like many have an interest in the Ross rifle, I have never owned one. I am going to track down a copy of Rifle magazine and buy it. Thanks for the heads up Hillbilly Bear.

GRF

Here's a very good YouTube video of the WW1 Ross Rifle. About a hour long.

I haven't read it yet but Ross Seyfried also did an excellent article in the January 2000 issue of Rifle magazine.

Yes, it was an excellent article. In fact I dragged my copy out of the files and reread it while researching my article. But his was primarily about the .280 Ross sporting rifles. Mine is primarily about the .303 military rifles.

I would like it if you were to do an article on the sporting Ross rifles as well. I always appreciate someone taking another look at something.

I was looking through a 1980(?) Gun Digest the other day and came across an article about the Ross .22 rifle, a single shot that appeared to be possibly a military trainer. Anyway, the author (don't recall his name) fired some very good groups with quality .22 LR ammo. Over the years I have read numerous artlcles about the Ross sporting and military rifles but don't recall an article on the .22 Ross.

Excellent article. Thumb's up to Mule Deer on that one. I've also been interested in those although I've never even seen one in person. A recall that Ross Seyfried article on them. He had a sporter in 280 Ross IIRC, and stated that when he came across one for sale he had to buy it because " It had my name on it". Sounds as though the Ross could have had a future at least as a sporting rifle if they could have refined their design a bit more before it went into production. That 280 Ross cartridge was a bit ahead of its time.

Steve Redgwell
Could you email me please. I would like to talk to you about the 25/303 Epps. You would find it a very practical cartridge
nelsongr1958gmail.com
Cheers mate
Bob

And apparently WAY ahead of good bullets. Most of the articles I've read said the bullets used were not up to the job, and people got hurt when they tried to shoot bigger or more dangerous game with them.

And that is much of the reason why it faded from use.