Anyone have an original Ross sniper rifle?

RRCo. said:
They had all the experimental stuff from the Ross factory and threw it all in the scrap. Give nothing to museums, loan, but never give.
Click to expand...
Sadly even that is no guarantee of saftey or even it being exhibited especially when the lender passes on!
My Gt Uncle loaned his wartime collection of Photos to the Cdn Grenadier Gds museum but they were archived and never displayed. Heis still a little sore about that. At least if researchers knew where they were they could be used in books etc. More museums need to be open about what they have in archive, who it really belongs to and if it can be accessed for research. The Online storage of WW1 attestation papers in Canada was a great move, we need more history teachers to be as motivated and dedicated as those summer students were!:canadaFlag:
 
82762411.jpg



There she is, the only known picture! The scope looks awfully low on the rifle...
 
skirsons said:
82762411.jpg



There she is, the only known picture! The scope looks awfully low on the rifle...
Click to expand...

That's a PPCo. scope. They were installed over-bore (centred) and off-set to the left (ala garand). They were set-up in England along with Winchester scopes.

The Warner Swasey scoped snipers were built at the factory.
 
Last edited:
beaver455 said:
snip....
I also searched Colt 1911s and got 27 hits.Two of which are original NAA (Ross Rifle Co.) protypes.After Singer made 1911s these Canadian made ones are the next ratherest.Nice to know what our government has squirreled away.

beaver455
Click to expand...

IIRC Singer made 500 1911s as a test program, NAA made @100 before the contract was cancelled.
 
Ross Sniper

A friend told me that in Ottawa there is a patent office and they are throwing military items patented with the tags on them out into the dumpster. When asked they said because the museum told them they didn't want to be called about the stuff.
Want to bet the patent office has sent lots of Ross items to the dump because it would be an inconvenience to some government worker.

If it were something like the first flip-flop it would be considered valuable to the fashion culture. Stuff like that P***es me off because some lazy few working in places like that got there by kissing somebody’s ass, not because they know anything. They make the hard working ones look bad.

I know of one small military museum, the person that runs it uses the museum as a way to collect items. I know the same person sends many items to auctions and the money probably doesn't go back into the museum.

Think about this; if the museum has a duplicate of an item, they only show one, what happens to the other one??

Years ago In a NB museum the person in charge would destroy the duplicate to make the remaining one rare. This went on for some time until that person was caught. It isn’t common knowledge and my information came from a reliable source.
 
Lee Enfield said:
That's a PPCo. scope. They were installed over-bore (centred) and off-set to the left (ala garand). They were set-up in England along with Winchester scopes.

The Warner Swasey scoped snipers were built at the factory.
Click to expand...

As a matter of fact that is an Aldis No2 or No3, not a PPCo. The mounts it is in are a very rare type, whose name escapes me at the moment.

Where is the rifle located?

They are almost identical to PPCo. mounts but the rings are larger. I had an Aldis No4 that had once had these rings and had an SMLE serial number engraved on the tube. The scope was actually on eBay a few weeks ago.

That may or may not be an original fitting, but it probably is, given the rarity and obscurity of the mounts. The average faker wouldn't know enough to use that type. Nothing surprising about its being fitted to a Ross, our ancestors were concerned with results, not KORs on the modification of rifles. When the damn things were lying all over the battlefield to be picked up, does anyone think much fuss was made about chopping a few bits off some?

The Aldis No2 and No3 had SUPERB optics, No4 almost as good and Patt. 18, the poorest - ironic since it was basically a copy of a German Hensoldt scope. On a M10 that would be a formidable combination.

Some of the Ross snipers may have been put together by the SAED: Small Arms Experimental Department in Quebec.
 
Last edited:
Great for the trenches though, no need to expose more than absolutely necessary to clear the bore over the parapet -very ingenious.
 
For those intersted in 1st World War sniping from a Canadian Perspective may I suggest "A Rifleman went to war!" I really enjoyed it and read it about once a year!
 
A Rifleman went to war is exactly what it says in the title, I will write a quick synopsis but not this weekend as I am at a Country fair selling dog training gear on the wifes stand!
 
Ross MkIII Snipers- I've been logging legit ones plus fakes for multi years now, and will only say "CWM has a legit but mis-matched set, and there are multiple other original but mis-matched sets in canada, but I won't say where" The closest next match is a rifle in England, it's matching-number 'scope in the Toronto area, and the leather case currently missing" Several very good fakes are in the US as well. The rifles were selected from two distinct serial ranges; approx half from 1915(FK) and the remainder from 1917(LL). The W&S 'scopes were numbered from 1 to 500, and the matching serial was stamped on both the unique to canada leather case by Wilson and also stamped on the rifle butt as "scope No.XX". The matching rifle serial was also stamped on the leather 'scope case. Should any of you out there have either a Wilson case with serials stamped and/or a W&S 1913 'scope, I certainly don't want them, but would appreciate the info plus photo for the file.
NAA .45 acp pistols- many fakes were made up not too many years ago in sunny California. I still have my early one marked "RR Co, Quebec Can-1917" with Fred Porter's stamp plus the Springfield Inspector's stamp on the triggerguard bow.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom