Bubba's Ross rifles, Seems WE have an obsession?

flying pig

flying pig

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I had a fun month of July this year! Been saving like Scrouge to try and pick up my first really nice, collectible rifle. I've been searching all over to find the right one, and recently I've had my heart set on finding a beautiful M-10 commercial sporter (.280 Ross).

Earlier this month I had a great friend and CGNer offer me a Ross MkII*** bubba rifle as a project. Naturally I went for it, so far it sure shows promise. It has a few holes drilled in it, one screw missing in the back sight, no bluing on the receiver and most parts (but strangely the barrel has good finish left) and has a very interesting front sight (Bubba used a coin as the sight blade). The action is smooth and the barrel shows honest wear but is not pitted and is quite shiny. The rear sight is missing the adjustment knob off the end of the windage screw, so once the rest of my gears and tools for my lathe come in I will try and cut a replacement screw for it. They cut the butt back a bit and installed a cork butt pad. I'm thinking it would be a good one to practice rust bluing on. This one was definitely done long long ago.










The second one also came from a CGNer. I think this one is just stunning! It has a great bore and shows beautiful craftsmanship all over. The wood is even proud of the metal still, it has beautiful checkering, tastefully shortened barrel and reshaped stock. I really like this one. It also has the MkII back sight which I like. What Mk would this one have started as? The finish on the metal on this one is a little rough in places and near perfect in others. I'm not sure what type of finish it is though as its kind of chipping with straight lined edges in places? I may give this one a nice rust blue later on if I get good at it. This one will be my elk rifle this year if it shoots well. It is missing one front action screw, if anyone has one they would be willing to pass on I have other parts I'd be willing to trade.

















So what do you guys think? So I have an obsession with Bubba's old junk? Ha ha!
 
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I think you have good taste!!

I have a decent collection of military rifles now but my favorite is my sportered full length barreled mkIII.

So maybe I'm nutz to!!
 
The II* conversion is particularly nicely done. The pre-Mk. III rifles used European walnut; that really shows in the sported II***.
 
Hehe. I've got five "bubba" Ross rifles now. The things are just so damn nice that they are very hard to actually wreck. That, or I just get lucky with my picks.
 
It's perfectly understandable to have an obsession with Ross Rifles.

Besides, if they lock us all away, we might be on the same ward.

At least we'll have something to talk about between shock treatments!

You have the start on a WONDERFUL collection!
 
Thanks Smellie, without you, Buffdog and a few others on this site I may never have rid myself of the notion of the terrible Ross rifle as we learned about them in highschool. There are only three in the rack again right now, I let the MkIII sporter we had talked about last winter go to help fund my search for a nice M-10. If all goes well I'll hopefully have one to show here by the end of the month, and then there will be four again. They are rapidly catching the Lee-Enfields.
 
Well its funny what a couple hours of effort can do to an old rifle. I wanted a good hunting rifle for tighter woods and the second one pictured above is it, so I spent a little time to get it ready for a lot of time in the saddle and bush this fall. I did a little cold bluing on the spots where the bluing was gone and I cleaned the stock really well and hand rubbed a new BLO finish on it, and installed a nice wide sling. By far my favorite of my sporting rifles now. Time to go see how it shoots, I'm hoping it likes the 220gr RN 308 bullets, that would make for nice clean one shot show stoppers in the woods.





 
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Very nice work. That is a rifle most of us who like the Ross would be happy to take out hunting. Too many people today think you have to put a big scope on a hunting rifle but have never hunted in the dark timber. Besides there is the satisfaction of using an old Classic rifle to get your meat supply. Make sure you take some pictures when you dump that Elk.
 
I agree entirely and I can't wait to be able to take those pictures! I used a Rem 742 in .280 last year but it wasn't quite what was needed for the job. The longest successful shot in our group last fall was about 80m. Time spent trying to get behind the scope was the biggest trouble.
 
Dad and I went scouting tonight and stopped to shoot some milk jugs for a few minutes of fun. I tried out the 220gr 308 bullets in the MkII* and its deadly. Poi and poa meet up exactly. Recoil is minimal, and that's saying a lot because that critter is light. It was my Dad's first time shooting a Ross and he loved it. I also brought another MkIII sporter for him to try out too. He was trying to buy the MkII from me by the end of it. Ha ha!

The chamber in the MkII must have been really hogged out. I've had other Rosses with the enlarged chamber and they did not stretch the necks anywhere near like this one. I'm hoping I can get at least a few reloads out of the brass with it but I'm afraid it might be one to buy cheap brass for and toss it after a few loads. I've never pushed my brass before, are split necks as dangerous as head separations?
 
NOTHING like as dangerous, friend. More a d*mnd NUISANCE.

Always helps, with something like this, to anneal the front of the casings about very 4 shots. That is a LOT of stretch.

I have the same problem on my own 1906, a twin for yours.

Glad the 220s are working for you!

Whatever you do, don't hurt Bambi! Try for his MOTHER: more for the freezer!

Good luck!
 
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It would seem that a lot of the Mark II Ross rifles have been the victims of the program to enlarge the chambers. This is particularly true for the Military ones.

One solution is to keep your brass segregated, and neck size them. LEE makes a three die set, with a full length, a collet type neck size, and a seating die, including the shell holder. Canadian military brass, particularly the Defence Industries (DI) 1944 and 1945 brass is great and is reloadable with standard boxer primers. Some of these primers are crimped in a bit, but this small ring of crimp around the primer pocket can be easily removed with a LEE case mouth reaming tool. Just a light application will do, no need for a large deep chamfer here.

Modern day Winchester and Federal cartridge cases run a bit to the thinner side, so tend to split easier in oversized chambers. As Smellie mentioned, it can help to anneal your brass. Another way is to fire form your brass to the chamber. Use SMELLIE's trick of a small rubber band or "O" ring over the case just ahead of the rim. Prime and fill the case with about 10 grains of Unique, then fill it up with cream of wheat or fine corn meal and push a small wad of toilet paper on top to keep it in place.

TAKE THE RIFLE OUTDOORS, load the cartridge, point it up in the air at about a 45 degree angle and fire it. Then you can neck size it and load it as normal. WARNING - DO NOT point it at anything close when you fire it, as the Cream of Wheat or Corn Meal can cause injury at close range, but it will be pretty harmless if shot into the air as it disperses rapidly.

BTW - If you shoot Bambi, you get sandwiches. If you shoot Mother, you get steaks. As you have discovered, there are areas and circumstances where open sights are move valuable than a scope. In over 55 years of hunting all over Canada, I think about 95% on the game animals I have shot have been under 200 yards, and most of those well under 100 yards. This is well within open sight ranges.

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Thank you both very much for the help. I measured the mouth of a few of the cases after firing, they are now .333" at the widest point! I'm going to try to neck size them here this morning and see what happens. I'll keep it up on the annealing, also I'll try that fire forming trick, thanks Buffdog.

I started with the load I had PM'd Smellie about yesterday, no pressure signs of any kind at all and accuracy seems good, although we were shooting over the hood of my truck so I'll take out the bag rests and try it prone onto paper before the season starts. That 220 sounds like it hits hard!

I think Bambi is pretty safe around us, now Bowinkle and his cousin Wapiti on the other hand...
 
Tried neck sizing the 10 cases I used last night first with the Lee collet die, then down to the 308 diameter neck in a RCBS 308 win neck die. Wasn't really a great success. Six cases out of the ten survived the Lee die, I think I will try skipping it and going straight to the RCBS next time. Seems like the collets just bit into the neck and collapsed it. I should have stopped after the first one, but I was using some of my older cheap remington brass anyway.
 
flying pig said:
Tried neck sizing the 10 cases I used last night first with the Lee collet die, then down to the 308 diameter neck in a RCBS 308 win neck die. Wasn't really a great success. Six cases out of the ten survived the Lee die, I think I will try skipping it and going straight to the RCBS next time. Seems like the collets just bit into the neck and collapsed it. I should have stopped after the first one, but I was using some of my older cheap remington brass anyway.
Click to expand...

I've neck sized a lot of 303 cases used in my Ross (E marked barrel) and my No4 Mk1 and LEC1. I use the Lee collet die and have never collapsed a neck. Is your decap mandrell in place?
 
Yes it is in place. The MkIII we had out has an E marked chamber as well but did not distort the brass anywhere near how the mkII did. I should have taken a before photo but at 6am I only thought of it after, so I have the photo showing the crushed ones. It took minimal pressure to do it too. I'm thinking they've stretched too much, but I will try the .308 die only on the next batch and see.

If anyone has a 338-303 and needs brass I may be able to help ha ha
 
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