Rechambered Milsurp

drache

drache

BANNED
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
BANNED
Rating - 98.2%
54   1   0
Location
Williams Lake, BC
My father and I were talking during our last hunting trip and he told me that his first gun was called a Ross. I knew what that was but then he told me it was rechambered for .300 WIN MAG.

Seems more than a few people told him not to buy it since they said a .300 WINMAG was too much for a straight pull bolt.

My dad took his first moose with that rifle as well as his first deer.

I'm currently trying to see if the current owner of said rifle will sell it back to me. :D
 
I've heard the .303Brit rechambered to .300WinMag (for instance in a P-14 Enfield) referred to as a ".311 WinMag", it has certainly been done.
The bullet of factory .300 ammo would partially engage the rifling, so the accuracy would probably be at least minute-of-moose.

As for rechamberring the Ross, I'm certainly not saying that it couldn't be done; but as the .300 is a bit longer than the .303, I'd think there was a fair bit more work to be done rather than just running a reamer into the chamber.

As for the Ross being strong enough... I'd think that it would be, I'd bet that the .280 Ross operated at normal sporting rifle pressures, so that would make it strong enough, maybe not a lot of margin for errors; but ja, enough.
 
1910 Ross action is long enough to take the .280 Ross cartridge which it was designed around. It is CERTAINLY long enough to handle the .300 WinMag.

1910 Ross action is the strongest rifle action ever designed. The 1905 was rated at 100,000 psi and the 1910 exceeds this by a great margin. 1910 action has been tested at 125,000 psi and held together.

Operating pressure of the .280 Ross was 28 Imperial Long Tons per square inch: 62,720 psi.

Safety margin with the .280 round or equivalent in the 1910 was 100%: there is NOTHING made today with a minimum 100% safety margin.

Rifle would have worked fine if it had had an internal magazine; cartridge would be too long for the military-type magazine, but that was used only on the cheapest sporters.

Likely the work would have been done by Ellwood Epps; he regularly reworked rifles to handle the .303 Epps Magnum: .308 Norma Mag case with a .312 bullet. Going to .300 WinMag would have been a relatively short trip.

And one more point: lots of Rosses had very tight bores, even in .303. Rebarreling might not even have been necessary. A friend has one in 7mm RemMag, works nice.

Sounds nice. I want one!

OP's Dad has really good taste!
.
 
I'd politely smile and nod at that story. He's probably confusing the basic rifles. Let's just look at the dates. The Ross was a WWI rifle that was discredited by 1945, and so undesireable that the stores could barely give them away. The .300 WM cartridge is a 1960's design. The gunsmiths of the day were told categorically that ALL Rosses were unreliable and I doubt any of them would tempt Sir Charles Ross' math with a magnum conversion. Don't forget where many of them were reading their technical advice - The American Rifleman and gunsmithing books by Dunlap.

On the other hand, the rifle is more likely a 1917 Enfield rechambered to .300 WM and using a 1914 bolt. The body is big enough and very strong. The .303 bolt face is an easy adaptation. This is a well-known conversion.
 
maple_leaf_eh said:
I'd politely smile and nod at that story. He's probably confusing the basic rifles. Let's just look at the dates. The Ross was a WWI rifle that was discredited by 1945, and so undesireable that the stores could barely give them away. The .300 WM cartridge is a 1960's design. The gunsmiths of the day were told categorically that ALL Rosses were unreliable and I doubt any of them would tempt Sir Charles Ross' math with a magnum conversion. Don't forget where many of them were reading their technical advice - The American Rifleman and gunsmithing books by Dunlap.

On the other hand, the rifle is more likely a 1917 Enfield rechambered to .300 WM and using a 1914 bolt. The body is big enough and very strong. The .303 bolt face is an easy adaptation. This is a well-known conversion.
Click to expand...

The only reason I brought it up is because my dad called the rifle by name, "Ross". My father is a FUDD, plain and simple and only knows the names of rifles he's owned/owns. To him the only rifle Remington makes is the 700. So my father confusing two milsurps would be pretty rare unless he owned both of them as he couldn't even name two milsurps off the top of his head.
 
To bad, you still don't have that rifle drache. If it was done by Elwood, it would have been done right and more than likely had a tight bore.

Elwood, was a great guy. He had his rifles pictured and explained in many prominent US/UK firearms magazines, back in the day. There is even one in Cartridges of the World. PO Ackley, thought highly of him and his skills.

I do know this about him, he loved Ross rifles. He loved Lee Enfields and he loved Pattern 14 - 17 rifles. He liked Mausers and Martinis as well as just about anything else that went bang but he loved to tinker more than anything. He told me once that he had made a few mistakes and ruined a couple of rifles but none that belonged to anyone else. Some of his conversions on Lee Enfields and Ross rifles, were nothing short of spectacular. He was good with stock making but it really wasn't his forte'. His stocks were nice but plain. He did have a good friend in Ontario, that he met in the Yukon, that made up high end stocks for some of the rifles he produced.

Epps rifles, were rumored to shoot very well and of the few I've seen shoot, I believe it.

I only met and talked to Elwood over the phone. If I need advice or parts, he seemed to have an unending and valuable supply.
 
It took me 30 years to do it, but I met Ellwood once: a lifetime ambition realised.

He was retired at the time but still putting out his "Gramp's Antique Cartridges" list. I had a question that seemingly had to be anwered by Ellwood, so the fellow in the shop took my buddy and I over to meet him. For me.... it was almost like meeting God or something. THIS was the guy who did it ALL. So I didn't know how to come aound to what I wanted to say.... and got a bit tongue-tied. I asked Ellwood about Ross Rifles and he almost exploded.

"It's all LIES," he yelled as he walked across the ceiling, "There's nothing wrong with a G*d-d*mned Ross Rifle!!! I've worked on HUNDREDS of them!"

Well, that was good enough for me. There it was, right, straight from the Number One Gunsmith in Canada: there is nothing wrong with the Ross Rifle.

And the best part, almost, was that Ellwood said that the shop would build me a .280 any time I sent them an action.

.
 
bearhunter said:
To bad, you still don't have that rifle drache. If it was done by Elwood, it would have been done right and more than likely had a tight bore.
Click to expand...

The rifle last I heard was in the possession of my aunt's husband. Sold to him for $300 back in the 80's I believe (maybe late 70's).

He doesn't hunt and the rifle only came out when he went horse back riding as bear defense or shooting a wounded horse.

Im going to see if he's interested in selling it if he still has it.
 
When I was going to Clinton Collegiate Institute from 54-58, I used to go downtown and hang aroung Elwood's shop before he sold out there and moved to Orillia. Loved the shop and listening to the stories. Guns all over the place, no trigger locks, In the indoor pistol range, they had a sign. "Our pistol range, drink till 12, pistol 2. Knew Elwood and his son Don. My dad used to hang around with Elwood as a young guy, told a story about a group of them on Halloween night moving an outhouse and hanging a Sunoco sign on it in the middle of the main intersection of a little hamlet called Varna.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom