price check please Ross rifles

tigertrout

tigertrout

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Don't know much about these so any help would be appreciated. they all have full wood have good bores and all the correct pieces ( I think) and can anyone verify that the sporter is an original factory sport or conversion, its in 303.


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Top one looks like a factory sporter, probably an E-10 or does it say M-10 on the receiver ring? It has express sights anyway. There is one on EE now asking $830, I think. The other two look like Ross service rifles, a model 1910 with the protruding magazine and probably a 1905 on the bottom. It's nice the stocks aren't sanded as the rifles unit history is stamped on it. Collectors like them fine.
 
E-10 sporting rifle.
Mk. III service rifle. Looks as if there is something stamped on the left of the receiver. Is it DA plus a number?
Mk. II*** service rifle. Obviously issued to PPCLI, and the Canadian Mounted Rifles prior to WWI.
Perhaps $2000 - $2500 worth of rifles, depending.
 
I have DA170, and DA386.
That is a mark applied by the Chilean navy.
Prior to WWI, the Chileans were having a battleship built in Britian. The war started, and the Brits took over the vessel, finished it, commissioned it as HMS Canada. HMS Canada was at the Battle of Jutland in 1916. IIRC, fired 45 rounds from its main guns. HMS Canada was RN, not RCN.
Anyway, your Mk. III probably went to Flanders with the CEF. After the Rosses were withdrawn from front line issue, they were relegated to other service. Many went to the RN, including yours. After the War, HMS Canada went back to Chile as the Almirante LaTorre. The Rosses went along as ship's stores. The Chileans scrapped the ship in 1958, the rifles were eventually imported by Century Arms in Montreal. They offered the rifles with matching bayonets, rifles and bayonets separately, and sporterized rifles. So that is how your rifle got back to Canada. If you have the bayonet, it will have the matching Chilean serial number, RN pattern frog, and RN pattern blade regrind, which is different than the Cdn. regrind. Scabbard and frog will be black, not brown.
Look at the marks on the right of the butt. The CEF marks should be there. If the serial is before 1916, the rifle may well have been involved in the bitter fighting in the spring of 1915, 2nd Battle of Ypres toward the end of April, and the following battles.
 
tiriaq said:
I have DA170, and DA386.
That is a mark applied by the Chilean navy.
Prior to WWI, the Chileans were having a battleship built in Britian. The war started, and the Brits took over the vessel, finished it, commissioned it as HMS Canada. HMS Canada was at the Battle of Jutland in 1916. IIRC, fired 45 rounds from its main guns. HMS Canada was RN, not RCN.
Anyway, your Mk. III probably went to Flanders with the CEF. After the Rosses were withdrawn from front line issue, they were relegated to other service. Many went to the RN, including yours. After the War, HMS Canada went back to Chile as the Almirante LaTorre. The Rosses went along as ship's stores. The Chileans scrapped the ship in 1958, the rifles were eventually imported by Century Arms in Montreal. They offered the rifles with matching bayonets, rifles and bayonets separately, and sporterized rifles. So that is how your rifle got back to Canada. If you have the bayonet, it will have the matching Chilean serial number, RN pattern frog, and RN pattern blade regrind, which is different than the Cdn. regrind. Scabbard and frog will be black, not brown.
Look at the marks on the right of the butt. The CEF marks should be there. If the serial is before 1916, the rifle may well have been involved in the bitter fighting in the spring of 1915, 2nd Battle of Ypres toward the end of April, and the following battles.
Click to expand...

Damn, that's why I love collecting Milsurps. The history behind them can be so captivating! Thanks for the information tiriaq!!:D
 
There will be a couple of letters along with the number and date, just to the right of the dividing line between the number and the date. III is the model, 328, plus the letters, plus the date are the serial. Is there a circle the size of a small coin with CEF in it?
 
DA 426 sends her kindest regards, mentions that she really enjoys her Sierra 180s at 2335 ft/sec if you set them to the OAL of a Mark VII Ball round.

DA 426 is a very early-production rifle with an anomalous serial number, had a nice Caribbean vacation and then spent a few nasty days at St. Julien with the Canadian Scottish before taking up sea duty.

I have passed along the message; now I can say something. These old rifles have absolutely the finest triggers I have found on ANY military rifle. They are a pure joy to shoot.... and they do that so VERY well.

BTW, your Sporter should be chambered for ".303 Ross" (same as .303 British, mind you) and it should say proudly MADE IN CANADA on the left side of the chamber, just before a very tiny serial number. It is a lovely specimen.

The Mark II with the PPCLI and CMR markings would have been used as a training rifle very early in the War. When the Great War started, there were very few Mark III rifles in existence so they used mostly Mark IIs for training, equipped the troops with Mark III rifles as they came off the line. PPCLI were a brand-new regiment raised up at the beginning of the War, nearly all veterans and were in the first Canadian battalions overseas, then as now, so they would not have had the Mk II for very long.

Some VERY nice chunks of our history. Something to be very proud of.
 
This tread is really interesting wow! I'm not so much interested in those riffle per say, but How nice is it that you have a part of our history!! thats just awsome! I wish we would have built more gun in canada, have more history and collectable.
 
Might I add, these were made in QUEBEC CITY!!!(the military ones, at least)

Can you believe that? Guns made in Quebec!!!

I definitely need one.
 
You are a very lucky man. I have been unable to find a Ross MkIII with good full length barrel and wood and original stamped markings on butt priced south of $1000.
Bill
 
Hey TigerT,

Nice rifles for sure. Besides what's been mentioned, I can't say a whole lot more. The price estimates are, as much as I can tell, realistic. A factory sporter for $500, that's probably not unrealistic; the other two, if original, close to $1000 when in good shape?

Question for the Ross folks (which I'm not), could any of these be in .280, or would all of them be in .303?

Lou
 
Lou, these would have to be in .303. For one thing, that funny-looking magazine just would not accommodate the big .280: too short, not wide enough.

As to the 1905, it is my understanding that the .280 was never released in this action, even though this is the action which was used while the .280 was being designed. When the .280 hit the market, it was in the "halfway" version, sometimes called the '1907' action, although this is NOT a factory designation: 6-lug bolt. This was superceded by the 7-lug 1910-type action very quickly.

The .280 rifles all had the magazines completely internal, so, if you run into a 7-lug action with a sporter-type flush magazine, it's a .280 for sure. OR something else strange.

ROSS worked with Newton on the development of the .280. They came up with a whole pile of experimental cartridges, of which I have exactly ONE: a .28 Ross, the experimental test-bed for the .280. I think they made about 3 rifles for it. Ammo is NOT common, as you might think.

Hope this helps a little.
 
A Ross in full Mil config is something that hasn't yet passed into my safe.

I've seen a couple of nice ones, (including DA 170 and DA 386) but haven't found one that's the right price at the right time for me to add to my gathering of arms.

A couple special pieces you have there, enjoy them!

NS
 
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