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

[smellie]

I don't think your chamber has been enlarged, friend.

Some of the VERY early Mark IIs (and yours is VERY early, going by that rear sight) were notorious for their generous chambers.

Rough comments in that direction were one of the reasons that Ross tightened the chambers in later rifles.

Then they b*tchd again!

My built-in-1906 is a twin to yours except that yours is MUCH nicer. I am willing to bet a whole piece of Raisin Pie that our brass cannot be told apart!

It is simply the Nature Of The Beast.

Try backing your die out about half an inch, putting a lubed case on the ram and raising it, THEN screwing the die down until contact plus a quarter-turn. That should size the CASE. For the NECK, swap out your .311 expander for a .308 expander. Should help a lot.

Good luck!

 

[Claven2]

Ya, these old Ross chop-downs grow on ya, don't they?

Here's a bubba in .280 Ross.

 

[friese1]

Nice

 

[flying pig]

Smellie, werethe early 1905 commercials built this loose in the chamber too? That makes perfect sense, it has no mark indicating an enlarged chamber.

Also on resizing, can I skip the whole Lee die and just use my RCBS 308 Win neck sizing die, and just go until it bumps the shoulder a tiny tiny bit? If I have time tonight or tomorrow I will post pictures of the cases and necks.

Claven, as usual gorgeous piece! That kind of bubba has a place on my rack at any time!

 

[Tinman204]

Ya, these old Ross chop-downs grow on ya, don't they?

Here's a bubba in .280 Ross.

Some idiot strapped a tacticool flashlight to the top of that gun and even faced it backwards!! Oh the horror!

All kidding aside claven, bubba or not I'd be proud to own that rifle!!

 

[Tinman204]

Just for comparison sake, here's a shot I took of 2 .303 cases shot in 2 Ross rifles.

The left Winchester 30-30's 1905 in full military configuration

The right fired from my own 1915 mkIII sporter.

Both were fired on the same day and both were original DI 44 cartridges from a small lot of ammo I got from my neighbor.

 

[bdft]

Claven, what exactly makes that 280 a bubba? I'll give you 200.00 for it anyday. Shipped, of course.

 

[Claven2]

I'm just messing around - it's a factory original.

 

[flying pig]

I was gonna say what's bubba about it: it's got sling loops on its studs or what?! Ha ha

 

[Claven2]

those aren;t studs, they are the factory sporter swivels. This is a really nice example too with a perfect bore. Shoots well.

 

[smellie]

@FlyingPig:

Your early 1905 was built as a military rifle. That rear sight was never sold on Sporters; factory Sporters used the 94 Winchester rear sight.

That said, it is one helluvva NICE conversion, likely done many years ago by someone who KNEW what they were doing.

Mine is virtually identical, minus the lovely checkering.... and with military markings intact.

Does your rifle have the SERIAL NUMBER on the left side of the Chamber, just above the wood? If so, something new for the books.

BRASS from our rifles appears identical.

YES, you could use a .308W die on that; I do it myself.

Have fun!

 

[flying pig]

Just teasing Claven, the one I just bought has the same swivels on it. I don't know anything about the 'scopes that were available for them and have only seen a few pictures of the mounts. Seems like there really weren't that many scoped ones?

Smellie, definitely a spoterized one, but I couldn't agree with you more, got very lucky on this one. No serial number, Canadian government marked all over. The damaged cases were probably just part of the learning curve, I'll try the other die adjustment you mentioned as well, if you say you've been reloading yours then it is doable and my inexperience is the weak link.

On a related note, would my MkI* have been converted to the ski jump sight or would it have been built as a MkI*? I wonder how much time there was between these two being completed. The MkI* is an I block, no way to know on the MkII I guess.

 

[flying pig]

So its time for the good, the bad, and the fugly! This is the old girl I was offered locally. Very good shooter (the good), barrel is cut back pretty short for my taste (the bad), and what the hell happened to the stock! ( the FUGLY!). Been thinking about trying to build my own stock from a blank, think this one may be worthy. It deserves better than this...









It just wants to be loved...

 

[Winchester30-30]

nothing wrong with a good ross rifle ive got my 1905 MK2*** and i love that gun! id love to get my hands on a .280!!! id like to get my hands on a ross m10

 

[Tinman204]

"bubba" 1915 MkIII Ross, she's my favorite! It retains a full length barrel and barrel band. It is identical to most pictures I've seen of Ross sniper rifles but sadly it was sanded so only the serial number is still visible and I'll never know where's she's been!

Flying pig, maybe we should start up a "obsessed Ross rifle owners" support group!

I'll start "hello my name is Steve, and I'm obsessed with Ross rifles"

 

[Blastattack]

"bubba" 1915 MkIII Ross, she's my favorite! It retains a full length barrel and barrel band. It is identical to most pictures I've seen of Ross sniper rifles but sadly it was sanded so only the serial number is still visible and I'll never know where's she's been!

Flying pig, maybe we should start up a "obsessed Ross rifle owners" support group!

I'll start "hello my name is Steve, and I'm obsessed with Ross rifles"

Might be a bubba, but she sure is beautiful.

 

[RangeRover]

Been thinking about trying to build my own stock from a blank, think this one may be worthy. It deserves better than this...

We had a fellow at the Ross shoot who is making stocks for the Mk III. He brought, and shot, one of his project rifles. He does nice work based on what I saw on display (and it shot well). I'm on the road now, but will PM you contact info when I get back home.

 

[flying pig]

Sounds good RangeRover! Tinman204 that is a beautiful rifle no matter what way you look at it, very very nice! I think old Fugly may be jealous!

 

[flying pig]

New arrival!!! M-10 is here!

Having an awesome day today. My wife shows up at work at lunch with a rifle shaped box...

I've been looking for a M-10 commercial sporter for close to two years. In that time I've seen a few nice ones with a steep tag, a few non original ones with price tags around where they should be but advertised as originals and one that saw Bubba's ideologies heavily at work, still asked close to $500 for it. So I waited and kept looking and looking. I even put an add in our local bargain hunter (which produced Fugly). But as we all know, when it rains it pours, and a bit of research helps! The listing at Epps said it was a R-10 sporter, in .280 Ross. Knowing that the R-10 didn't come in .280, I asked for pictures. Bingo. Nice looking M-10 that doesn't look overly beat to death and with a nice price tag to boot.

Only things I have noticed that are less than 100% perfect is that the rear swivel has been whacked at some time and the surface of the stock has a bit of a damage bubble there, a couple scrapes on the bluing, and it looks like someone has touched the bluing up at some time (few tiny little pin prick pits that have been blued, and one small ding on the barrel that has been touched up) otherwise I think its original. What do you experts think?

And the big one: mirror bore, nice sharp rifling and no darkening in the grooves.















Sorry about the pictures guys, our good camera lens died so no good close ups, and the weather was bad. Not much can be done about that! Tried to show the spots I was wondering about as much as possible. The bluing in that last pic of the floorplate looks shallow but its not, its very even with everything else.


Very very excited about this one!

 

[Tinman204]

Wow, she's a looker for sure!!

I'm jealous!!