1905 Ross MK II sporter

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Picked up this 1905 MkII sporter that luckily has its 28" full length barrel to restore back to full military configuration and I was wondering if anyone may be able to tell me a bit more about it. As far as I can tell it was built in 1906 but as for the specific variant I'm kind of at a loss also not pictured is the buttplate which is the sliding door style, I was also wondering where I might be able to get a stock set and maybe a repro mid band and nose cap, In my searching I did find a couple people making repros but the info I found wasn't recent.

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marking on stock by chamber (D Broad arrow C ) I'm guessing dominion of canada marking


Stock markings that are visible( ross factory stamp MKII. 466/1906 above that there's a barely visible 17 ) there appears to be other faint markings but the stock is coated in a decent layer of varnish or shellac and they're fairly worn.
 
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Contact divealta on here he will put you in touch with Bill who makes stocks and Lorne makes bands, sight hoods and nose caps. Yours's looks like it is long enough you could do a splice and keep the butt. He's in Edmonton and Bill is a bit south in New Norway Alberta.
 
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The Mk II variations ranged from the Mk II (with no star) through to the Mk II 5*. We would need to see the rear sight to be more certain, but you appear to have a Mk II or Mk II* with a Ross Mk II rear sight. If it is a Mk II*, there should be a * next to the II on the right-side butt face. By all means, try to include the original stock in any restoration. The markings on the stock are an important part of it's history.
 
That is a Ross Mk II rear sight. You have a Mk II (no star) or Mk II* that is well worth restoring. Look carefully at the right face of the butt to determine which you have. Please note: your rifle would have a narrow mid band - not the wide band found on later models. It would also have a different upper band. Those parts will be a challenge to find.
 
mr.e moose said:
Contact divealta on here he will put you in touch with Bill who makes stocks and Lorne makes bands, sight hoods and nose caps. Yours's looks like it is long enough you could do a splice and keep the butt. He's in Edmonton and Bill is a bit south in New Norway Alberta.
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I'll contact him and see what he says, if I could just get a replacement forend and upper handguards that would be ideal and it does look like it was chopped just before the mid band.

B_noser said:
By all means, try to include the original stock in any restoration. The markings on the stock are an important part of it's history.
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Ideally it would be nice to use the origional stock but if not I was going to look at potentially having the old markings laser etched into the new wood in roughly the same location.

B_noser said:
That is a Ross Mk II rear sight. You have a Mk II (no star) or Mk II* that is well worth restoring. Look carefully at the right face of the butt to determine which you have. Please note: your rifle would have a narrow mid band - not the wide band found on later models. It would also have a different upper band. Those parts will be a challenge to find.
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I can't see any star so it must be a MK II, as for the rear sight is there any documentation on how to adjust it. Windage and elevation are pretty self explanatory but the knurled ring has graduations on it and and I have no idea what its purpose is.
 
I decided to try and clean off the area on the but and thankfully it was just a thick layer of shellac so some alcohol on a rag removed it nicely and lo and behold some of the fainter markings appeared and it is actually a MK II*

the top most makring appears to be as far as I can tell
108
- -
00
--
17

the middle marking is
the ross factory stamp II.* 466/1906 P

lower making is as far as I can tell T.4.10 or possibly L 4.10

 
Congrats. That confirms it - a MK II*, serial #466 in the P range and manufactured in 1906. The other marks will reveal it's service history, which others will likely jump in to decipher. It is a nice find and well worth a proper restoration.
 
so I cleaned off the unit marking a bit more and it and it looks like it was the 17th rifle issued to the 102nd battalion and the middle stamping that I thought was a 00 appears to be a CC so whatever regiment or unit that corresponds to I haven't been able to find out.

102
- -
CC
- -
17
 
So I did a little more research and looked up what cc could possibly signify and if correct the unit marking would read something like 102nd battalion Canadian corps rifle 17
 
Serial on barrel indicates factory sporter barrel ,serial on stock military.receiver on your sporter is void of blueing yet barrel looks to be 90 percent blued still,could it be a barrel replacement at some time.
 
I would think the number on the barrel is just an assembly number or batch number the upper hand guard would be covering it up so it wouldn't really make sense to have a serial number there plus its stamped fairly haphazardly and from looking it appears the factory sporting rifles had a different barrel profile around the chamber area.
 
Factory sporters with (serial?) numbers stamped in larger text, and sometimes somewhat haphazardly, across the front of the barrel reinforce frequently surface. None that I have seen also had a serial number stamped in the usual location. Hopefully, someone will eventually ferret out the meaning and significance of those numbers. I, in my limited experience, have not seen those numbers on a military model. If the barrel or barreled action on this rifle is from a factory sporter, one would expect it to have a flat crown.

EDIT: Just took another look at the photos. This is the first one I have seen with the numbers stamped well off centre.
 
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It's probably a Cadet Corps as shown below. The 17 should be the date it was issued to the Cadet Corps, although the ones I've seen have had a month and year style date.

I was given one back in the 1990's or so with full wood and a never sanded stock. It always feels very light and delicate, so I shoot it with care and really baby it, but it's a great shooter. Good luck on the restoration and have fun shooting the old girl.


Name - 1st Hussars Cadet Corps

Location Sarnia, ON

Formed November 18, 1903 Disbanded Active

B Coy Feb 12, 1924 unknown
 
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