had my ross out today

gallen270

gallen270

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albert county, new brunswick
picked it up at a gunshow a few months ago and have been loving it since, even if its slightly bubba'd and a little rough looking. Yesterday I finally got around to taking a few pics. the gun shoots good, and i love the straight pull action. nicely tosses the brass back and right.

would be nice if anyone has an extra front sight hood kicking around though ;)

anyways, heres your #### :D

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ammo was all 1940/1941 stamped. Some of it was a bit questionable looking, but I wiped them down and it all went boom. Out of 40, three cracked. after 70 years, a few brittle brass arnt a big deal.

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Great gun too bad they cut the stock back. Dos it have a rivit in the bolt body that keeps it from being assembled the wrong way. I picked up a Mk II***** VG bore and complete except for sight hood. I found one in my parts bin and bought another front sight assembly just for the screws.
I have another cut down Mk II in VG condition. It still retains much of its case hardening. Will try my MK III Ross out in the next few weeks. I have had a Ross in my collection for the past 25+ years and never shot them. I shot one in 1975 when I lived in Truro.
 
Ross rifles

I am not 100% certain on this, but there were rumblings of some Ross rifles being arsenal converted around the late 1930s. The person to ask is SMELLIE, who probably knows more about the Ross than anyone else. He has some spare parts, and might even have a sight hood for one.

This one looks a bit nicer than the usual Bubba job. I'll leave it at that because SMELLIE will probably see your post and make a comment on it.

Nice find. It is possible that it may be a civilian sale rifle. With no pin in the bolt from a military arsenal.....just might be.

Adding a post script here: Had a chat with a collector in B.C. He had heard something about the National Parks Service being issued the Ross back before WWII., but has been unable to confirm it..
 
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Great photos, and it looks and sounds like it was a great day. While the rifle may not be original whoever did the work left the rifle still looking quite attractive.

Hoping to get my Mk II out this summer.
 
Ammo that age was before production really got ramped up on the NCNM stuff with the Boxer primers; most of that was '42 through '45. This early, the only people making it NCNM would have been Dominion Cartridge Company in Canada, Winchester in the States... and Winchester rounds which I have are jacketed with gilding-metal. These are standard Cupro-nickel and so would be Dominion Cartridge Company at best, Government stuff at worst.

So we look at the headstamp and discover that it is indeed Dominion ARSENAL, which was the Government plant, and so the ammo indeed is corrosive and mercuric. The rifle will need a good cleaning because this stuff just loved to eat steel and Ross barrels are more than a bit scarce these days.

This one sure doesn't look like your standard 'Bubba in the basement' model, nor something that Uncle Bob turned out in the garage between batches of skullpopper: much too nice for either of those. You will notice that the forestock is long enough to give proper support to the barrel right where it needs it. This should be a nice, accurate rifle.

I am interested in what is stamped on the chamber, just ahead of the front receiver ring. Does that say PLY, by chance?

Parks Service had Rosses until at least the end of the 1960s, but I have no idea what markings were on their or if they ever were released or what. I do know that I haven't seen any which could be POSITIVELY attributed to them.

But this is a very nice rifle and I'm sure glad to see more of them back on the range. Isn't that trigger just wonderful?

Have fun!
 
Well gallen that sure is a purposefull looking example of prime Canadian iron.
I too am just getting around to using mine after 30+yrs of procrastination. Took membership at CGN to kick my ass into gear.

Smellie, hows the writing going?. Wanted to thank you publicly for your efforts to educate me on Ross know how. The computer instructions however have yet to bear fruit, operator error is still S. O. P.
 
I remember the first time I shot my Ross. It was in a Vintage Match and I was shocked to discover the mag did not hold 10 rnds. A bummer in a rapid fire match.

Everyone should have one of these. Canadian history.
 
Rifles altered in this pattern are not uncommon. Barrel shortened, and lathe turned to remount the front sight. I notice the Brit. proofs. I wonder if that was where the rifle was sported? There are the stories about altered rifles being used by POW camp guards, Rangers, different groups. International Firearms sold sported Rosses that looked like this. In the absence of definitive information, who knows?
PLY and the number would relate to some unit or organization. Note that the letters were not impressed with professionally cut dies.
It is a guessing game - what fits PLY?
 
Hi, Gallen!

Just thought that that stamp looked awfully familiar, especially the last bit of it.

I have just been down the basement to the lockup and made it back upstairs (the hard part, believe me) and, right now, I am sitting at the kitchen table and looking at PLY 3692.

PLY 3692 has been hand-stamped with the PLY, same as yours, my lettering being very close together and rather straight where yours are more irregular, but the punches are the same ones. The number on mine also is punched in the same location as yours, but in a different, slightly smaller set of punches. My bolt is pinned, too.

The stock has been scrubbed of original serials, etc, there remaining only the slightest evidence that there ever was something there. I'm pretty sure that with normal methods it would be impossible to determine the original number, but you never know what UV might show until you try it. The stock, also, is very like yours except that it is missing the top handguard and the wood from under where the band used to be; it was cut right at the front of the band and reshaped. There is polishing on the top of the barrel to show where the handguard was for some time while the rifle was in use. Stock also has been reshaped a little and refinished, likely at the time the handguard was removed. Either Bubba or his cousin has drilled a couple of holes in the barrel to attach a "real" rear sight, that terrible old Ross Battle Aperture Sight obviously being so inferior. But he decided not to go this route and then the tapped holes were plugged with Allen-socket-head screws. Thankfully, the original rear sight remains attached and in good working condition. This one also has no front-sight hood, so we're in the same boat there. Barrel is 24-1/2 inches, so is same as yours.

(With all this inspection and poking and prodding going on, the poor thing is shaking in terror. It's afraid that I might sell it, then it couldn't spend time reminiscing with all the others! Couldn't do something like THAT, of course!)

Barrel is stamped with the LC stamp, meaning the chamber has been reamed, major reason I haven't taken her out to the range. Do something about that, right quick.

And, of course it has that beautiful little Canadian inspectorate stamp, crossed flags and Crown and DCP. I wish somebody would do up a poster of that, put on all the Canadian-built military small arms (including the Cooey 82), full-colour with the big DCP stamp in the middle. Get a hundred thousand of those out there and up on walls and people might start to think differently about our "non-military" past. Put production figures under each picture, too! You can't argue with a few million.

Anyway, the reason I was querying your exact stamp was that I knew that I already had a PLY, so I thought it would be nice to compare the two.
 
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Friend Peterdragon2 is staying here right now, looking for work. He has never fired a Ross, so I think that's definitely in the cards. Buffdog was over for coffee this afternoon and a great deal of plotting ensued.

If anything interesting pops up, CGN will be the first to know.

I queried this stamp about 4-1/2 years ago, at which time friend Tiriaq (who really knows his onions) suggested a possibility of Princess Louise Yeomanry. Now, MY PLY ALSO has the NOT ENGLISH MAKE and what looks like a well-worn set (poorly punched) of London proofs: Lion over an oval containing conjoined letters GP) and the information ".303 NITRO PROVED".

I am thinking of the possibility that both our rifles were swapped to the British for SMLEs, served in a British training unit called PLY and then surplused to the gunmaking trade following the War and factory sportered in England. I wonder if there are any OTHER PLY rifles around?????

Have fun with your PLY! I'm gonna have fun with mine, that's for sure!

Half the FUN of having one of these is trying to figure out where it's been, what it's done, what it's seen!
 
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I've got a PLY - fully cut down, no bolt pin, no top wood. Mine also has had the rear sight replaced by a fixed peep sight. I think mine has undergone Phase 11 sporting compared to the one above.
Collectors Source has/had a similar one - they were asking a lot of bucks for it, claiming some sort of pedigree - Parks Service, Rangers?
 
These cryptic markings are interesting.
I cannot think of anything beginning with a Y other that Yeomanry.
I recall a discussion about "CRB". Canadian Railway Bn? Canadian Reserve Bn? Canadian Ranger Bn? Only catch with the latter - is there any reference, anywhere, to a Canadian Ranger Battalion - as opposed to "Canadian Rangers"? There was a Canadian Reserve Bn. in the UK, and there were Cdn. railway troops.
Also, the serial numbers are too high for a battalion rack number.
The conversion on these rifles was done in a uniform manner, in a proper shop. But when, where?
 
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