Ross expert I have a question for you

fleury

fleury

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After talking about good old Canadian guns, the topic came across the Ross topic, after a quick conversation my friend told me that some one in his family have an old Ross, a sniper variant. After looking a bit more on that he came back to me telling me that it was in caliber .280 and that gun was taking off active service in 45.

They are 2 fact in that it his a Ross and it his in .280

I know that some of those rifle were made in different caliber, but I am suprised to hear about a military one in that caliber, his that possible?


Thank you
 
There was a military match rifle made in .280, prior to WW1. .280 calibre Ross rifles are invariably M-10 sporting rifles.
There were .303 Mk. III Ross rifles used as sniper rifles, some with iron sights, some fitted with various patterns of 'scopes that were available at the time. This was during WWI. The last 'scoped Mk. III rifles held in stores were broken for parts in 1944. They had been used for training purposes in Canada.
Your friend's family no doubt has a Ross, but I suspect that the family story accompanying it is just a story.
 
Ross .280

There were a few .280 Ross's known to have been used in WWI, both 1907's I believe. One by a member of the Greener family so likely in the British army. In the CEF, a nephew of Louis Riel killed over 30 Germans with his .280 Ross before being killed by a shell in 1916. Chances are the family story has become a little "foggy" over time, but hey, ya never know. Since the days of the Boer war, many personal sporting rifles have been used. Read recently that big-bore African hunting rifles were tried in the trenches of WWI to knock out German sniper shields.
Geoff
 
longbranch* said:
There were a few .280 Ross's known to have been used in WWI, both 1907's I believe. One by a member of the Greener family so likely in the British army. In the CEF, a nephew of Louis Riel killed over 30 Germans with his .280 Ross before being killed by a shell in 1916. Chances are the family story has become a little "foggy" over time, but hey, ya never know. Since the days of the Boer war, many personal sporting rifles have been used. Read recently that big-bore African hunting rifles were tried in the trenches of WWI to knock out German sniper shields.
Geoff
Click to expand...

I believe that LR's nephew used a .303 Ross MkIII (1910).

IIRC it is in either the CWM or a regimental museum.
 
so I guess the long and the short of it, are there any military M10 Ross rifles in .280?? The museum in Shilo had an M10 which they had labeled on the card as .280. I was suspicious. I corrected them on a couple other matters, but as I wasn't 100% sure and couldn't see the rifle close enough to tell for certain so I left this without mention. They were very receptive to my comments, so I'll e-mail them and correct this oversight too if in fact there are no military m10s in .280
 
The Short Ross Mk III - .280 was the combat rifle of dream of Sir Ross. It is illustrated on "The Ross Rifle Story" p. 49 and documented on p. 50.
They were made for trial in 1913. It had the .280 M-10 magazine (the Mauser type), a 1500 yds military Ross aperture battle sight, a 26 in. barrel and liked like the militia Mk III less the magazine protrusion. It seems there was less than 25 rifles made.

There was also the Military Match .280, quite similar to the above but with the bolt handle bent down. Less than 100 were made in 1912 (p. 188).

While it would be really surprizing that they have one of those, it is not impossible.... but unlikely.
I too, think the story have been painted pink over the years...


Get some pics of the lady, and there is surely someone here who can authentify or discard this story.

Riel's rifle is pictured on p. 282
 
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Military Match .280 is shown in the first post of this thread.
Looks like a Mk III without the protruding magazine.

http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php?t=221344&highlight=ross+####
 
Bottom rifle, and what a beauty it is!

280MilMkIII-1.jpg

280Mil_MkIII.jpg

280MilMkIII-2.jpg
 
And the "collector" who owns it (and many others important items / rifles from the Ross factory) makes us all jealous... but I know he's keeping them preciously and mostly, he shares his knowledge.
 
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