New Ross Need Info
- Thread starter mike12
- Start date
That is approximately where the serial would be on a commercial rifle, above the stock line. This rifle is a sported service rifle. Its serial would have been stamped in the wood on the right side of the butt. Sometimes rifles in non-Canadian service had serials stamped on their receiver rings.
As Tiriaq said, you have no safety. Be careful with that! Might be all right aiming downrange at the target, but as for hunting...best set it right.
At least with a pinned bolt you have little to worry about re the Mk III bolt Gremlin.
Many thousands of Rosses were sporterized like this.
Metal finish on it is quite good.
The RIFLE is a Mark III military Ross Rifle used by Canada in the Great War from 1914 to early 1917, then traded some time in the 1915 to 1917 period to the British for a Short Lee-Enfield. The British issued these to the Royal Navy and to the Royal Marines Light Infantry. They then served all over the globe, at stations and aboard ships. The ones that the Navy found surplus to requirements were disposed of in the 1920s, but 30,000 or so were kept until after the SECOND War when, following another 6 years of hard service, they were sold off as surplus, Your rifle is from this SECOND batch, so it saw Canadian and Royal Naval service in the First War, Naval only in the Second War.
These rifles then were sold off to the gunmaking Trade, sportered and sold back in Canada (and a few in the States) as a source of hard currency for a bankrupt Britain.
The wood was cut down and about 4 to 6 inches lopped off the barel.
They are a good, solid rifle with an action which is the strongest of any rifle ever built, anywhere. The barrels use a special form of Ross rifling which resembles Mauser rifling and they thrive on either flatbase or boat-tailed bullets.
When they were sportered, the stock markings were sanded out. Run down to your local Dollar Store or whatever you have and spend 75 cents on a BLACK LIGHT bulb. These are a powerful source of UV, so shield your eyes from the direct rays, then use the bulb to examine the right side of the butt carefully. When the numbers were punched in, the wood UNDER the numbers was compressed..... and the UV light often will show this just as plain as paint.
But tonight, you zip on over the milsurps dot com and take out a (free) membership, get into their famous Ross Rifle forum and download your very own (free) copy of the 1913 MANUAL for your rifle. This is your bed-time story-book for the next few night. Enjoy it!
Ross Rifles are shooters, pure and simple. That patented Ross roller-bearing trigger is like NO other in the world. And, believe it or not, they made 300,000 of them and they were ALL that good! I have a Ross here which has shot half-inch or under groups in the hands of so many people that they no longer call me a liar when I claim how well it shoots.
Oh, and this is very important: Welcome to the Wonderful World of Ross Rifles!
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These rifles then were sold off to the gunmaking Trade, sportered and sold back in Canada (and a few in the States) as a source of hard currency for a bankrupt Britain.
The wood was cut down and about 4 to 6 inches lopped off the barel.
They are a good, solid rifle with an action which is the strongest of any rifle ever built, anywhere. The barrels use a special form of Ross rifling which resembles Mauser rifling and they thrive on either flatbase or boat-tailed bullets.
When they were sportered, the stock markings were sanded out. Run down to your local Dollar Store or whatever you have and spend 75 cents on a BLACK LIGHT bulb. These are a powerful source of UV, so shield your eyes from the direct rays, then use the bulb to examine the right side of the butt carefully. When the numbers were punched in, the wood UNDER the numbers was compressed..... and the UV light often will show this just as plain as paint.
But tonight, you zip on over the milsurps dot com and take out a (free) membership, get into their famous Ross Rifle forum and download your very own (free) copy of the 1913 MANUAL for your rifle. This is your bed-time story-book for the next few night. Enjoy it!
Ross Rifles are shooters, pure and simple. That patented Ross roller-bearing trigger is like NO other in the world. And, believe it or not, they made 300,000 of them and they were ALL that good! I have a Ross here which has shot half-inch or under groups in the hands of so many people that they no longer call me a liar when I claim how well it shoots.
Oh, and this is very important: Welcome to the Wonderful World of Ross Rifles!
.
Two things about these: they all seem to have rusty mags. I'm just cleaning one up with the same problem, and yet, like the OP's, the case colours on the bolt sleeve show that it really had more abuse than use. Different steel in the mags? The way the Kippers stored them? The trigger guards are fine, but the mag outside is heavily pitted in both cases. Weird.
Does the number on your bolt handle correspond to another one anywhere mike12? The other one around here has a similar number, but on the action and barrel is one of those Royal Navy "PH" numbers for Plymouth Hove or whatever it was(?) I have a feeling the UK guntrade considered bolts on Rosses fully interchangeable and did so whenever the need arose.
Both have the Schmidt sanded out of their stocks, so I must buy myself a black light!
Does the number on your bolt handle correspond to another one anywhere mike12? The other one around here has a similar number, but on the action and barrel is one of those Royal Navy "PH" numbers for Plymouth Hove or whatever it was(?) I have a feeling the UK guntrade considered bolts on Rosses fully interchangeable and did so whenever the need arose.
Both have the Schmidt sanded out of their stocks, so I must buy myself a black light!
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@RRCo: Your "PH" stands for Priddy's Hard. It was a naval Ammunitioning Depot during both World Wars, situated just outside the main yards and emplacements at Portsmouth; they stored a lot of NASTY stuff there. In the last few years, it has been thoroughly decommissioned and most of it turned into a "housing estate". There IS a small Museum there in one of the old ammo bunkers. They have a website, BTW.
The PLY-marked rifles are Royal Marines Light Infantry out of Plymouth.
The CRB rifles are Royal Marines Light Infantry out of Crombie.
PLY, CRB and PH are confirmed RN/RMLI markings, the confirmation coming directly from the Curator of the RMLI Museum in Plymouth.
PLY numbers have been recorded up into the 6000 range, CRB numbers are less. So far the only PH number we have found is in 3 digits only. This makes sense: it was a munitioning depot only while the others were training depots for the Marines.
As to the Magazines, they were made of rather thin sheet-steel. Being that they were thin, there were complaints that they deformed easily. The quickest way to solve this problem would be to harden the daylghts out of the metal they had, and I think that's what they did. I do know that very hard steel rusts much faster than softer metal.
As to the Bolts, yes, the British "Trade" did switch them about with what we would call reckless abandon. I have photos here of CRB bolts in PLY rifles, vice versa and rifles with marked bolts in unmarked rifles. Good thing is that a Ross will handle just about anything for pressure...... and the extractor operates just like a Mauser, so headspacing generally is not much of a problem... and any problem which exists can be combatted with Ed's Famous O-Rings, available at your local Dollar Store for $1 for a blister-pack of 100 in the Girls' Department. They are pony-tail elastics and they WORK.
Care to share your PH number? Promise we won't hurt it!
Hope this helps.
.
The PLY-marked rifles are Royal Marines Light Infantry out of Plymouth.
The CRB rifles are Royal Marines Light Infantry out of Crombie.
PLY, CRB and PH are confirmed RN/RMLI markings, the confirmation coming directly from the Curator of the RMLI Museum in Plymouth.
PLY numbers have been recorded up into the 6000 range, CRB numbers are less. So far the only PH number we have found is in 3 digits only. This makes sense: it was a munitioning depot only while the others were training depots for the Marines.
As to the Magazines, they were made of rather thin sheet-steel. Being that they were thin, there were complaints that they deformed easily. The quickest way to solve this problem would be to harden the daylghts out of the metal they had, and I think that's what they did. I do know that very hard steel rusts much faster than softer metal.
As to the Bolts, yes, the British "Trade" did switch them about with what we would call reckless abandon. I have photos here of CRB bolts in PLY rifles, vice versa and rifles with marked bolts in unmarked rifles. Good thing is that a Ross will handle just about anything for pressure...... and the extractor operates just like a Mauser, so headspacing generally is not much of a problem... and any problem which exists can be combatted with Ed's Famous O-Rings, available at your local Dollar Store for $1 for a blister-pack of 100 in the Girls' Department. They are pony-tail elastics and they WORK.
Care to share your PH number? Promise we won't hurt it!
Hope this helps.
.
WestIslandRifle
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- QUEBEKISTAN, Canada
well with the LGR who needs serial numbers? just kidding i hade the problem with a mosin nagant i was given it was never regestered before i contacted the rcmp and hade to have a verifier check it on the frt and they gave me a sticker with a serial # to put on the gun i just got a good set of stamps and put it on perm
Ah yes, Priddy's Hard, I remember that thread from one of the other forums now, thanks Smellie. Must have have been a source of endless humour, with "Plymouth Hoe", which I was mis-remembering in my previous post, coming in a close second.
"PH1467" is on hand at present, although it was "1468" until the last digit was re-struck, probably when the numbers were first put on. Has the same wood chop as the OP's rifle, "Not English Make", UK proofs. All the usual stuff.
"PH1467" is on hand at present, although it was "1468" until the last digit was re-struck, probably when the numbers were first put on. Has the same wood chop as the OP's rifle, "Not English Make", UK proofs. All the usual stuff.
