Is there a vertical PIN through the Bolt Sleeve, top to bottom, about halfway back on the Bolt Sleeve, on the left side?
If there is a steel PIN there, it means that you have a "pinned bolt". They are totally safe but they also can be a b*tch to assemble.
With the E-for-Enlarged chamber, you can expect some case expansion at the base of the casings. Best partial solution to the problem is Ed's Famous O-Rings (but you can use pony-tail ties from the Dollar Store: buck a hundred), which you follow up with neck-sizing your brass. Your cases will last halfway to forever, but you will have to segregate them for use with THAT rifle and no other. Believe me, it's worth it. Try the LEE Collet Die for max case life.
Don't be too quick to try to swap that stock over (IF you can find a new one). Check on the UNDERSIDE of the Wrist of the Stock (the part your hand grabs onto) for a marking in the WOOD. I have 2 rifles very like this one, both marked (we believe, anyway) to Priddy's Hard Ammunitioning Base, 1 each for Battery 1 and 2. There could be others.
Your rifle may be a Shop modification to Sporter status, likely dating to the interwar period, possibly following the Second War.
On the other hand, it could also be ORIGINAL military configuration as a "Stripped Ross". These were done at the advanced Battalion Armourers' shops, not far behind the Front, DURING the Great War. They were very popular with Snipers. "The Ross Rifle was UNPOPULAR because of its length and weight; you couldn't get into a dugout with your rifle slung." (Captain George Dibblee, DCM, A Coy, 5th Batt, Canadian Mounted Rifles, CEF 1914 - 1919) I asked Captain Dibblee further as regards Rosses: "We had NO trouble with the Ross Rifle, but we kept our rifles CLEAN, unlike some outfits who never cleaned their equipment." There you have it, from a decorated Officer who was THERE and who CARRIED one.
That 30.5-inch barrel, by the way, gives you a little over 100 feet-per-second BETTER performance with given ammunition. The old tales were true: a Ross DOES "hit harder" because it has about 200 ft/lbs more kinetic energy with any given load. They also had very special rifling which responds well to boat-tailed bullets, given that you have a good, tight bore. In this they are unlike Enfield-rifled arms which are pretty much wedded to the flat-base bullet. Rifling is 1 turn in 10 inches, left-hand twist, 4 grooves only with narrow lands: very distinctive, nothing else uses it.
The Ross which I shoot most is one from the old HMS CANADA. It really likes the Sierra 180 Pro-Hunter seated to the OAL of a Ball round and pushed by a mere 35 to 36 grains of 4895. Low recoil, high accuracy and, after 15 firings, the brass still does not require trimming.
With a nice shiny bore, friend, you well could be good to go with CAST bullets. They are cheap like borshchdt and you can run them at about 1850 with 13 (thirteen) grains of Red Dot shotgun powder, get 538 loads for a pound of powder. EVEN if you put gas-checks on them, you are still looking at a DIME a shot..... and barrel wear will be just about negligible.
I would say that you really lucked-out on that rifle.
Congratulations..... and welcome to the Wonderful World of Ross Rifles!
