Ross Rifle: What's it worth?

[tiriaq]

The bolt has the rivet.
That is a WW2 alteration.
Prevents incorrect reassembly, but does not make disassembly any easier.
It is really easy to tell if a Mk. III bolt is assembled incorrectly. Lots of information about this.
It is worth experimenting to learn how not assemble the bolt. If a bolt has a bit of wear, it is possible to create the dangerous configuration without much effort, although it won't happen unless someone does it.
I did see a bubba'd Mk. III which had come into a shop. It was sitting on the rack with its bolt misassembled. Scary. I set it right.

 

[buffdog]

.

.
When a Ross rifle bolt is dis-assembled, it is possible, even with a pinned bolt to assemble the bolt head in the bolt body wrong. This results in the bolt lugs engaging only about 1/6 of the area it need to lock and be safe.

You can use the "Rule of Thumb." A correctly assembled bolt has a distance of approximately one inch or the width of your thumb between the back of the lugs on the bolt head and the bolt body (carrier).

It is also wise to visually check for full engagement of the locking lugs. If you take a small bright flashlight, and shine it into the receiver while you close the bolt, you can see the bolt head rotate to a fully locked position when fully closed and forward. If you can see a large amount of the locking lug, it is not locked and can cause severe injury when fired.

Just because the carrier has a pin in it is no assurance that the bolt is assembled correctly. It IS possible, if you work at it, to assemble the bolt that has been pinned, in the wrong position. Also, pins have been broken or have been worn out.
.

.

.

 

[swampdog]

Thank you! That description and the pictures explain it well.

This one fits the description of one that is assembled correctly, and I can see the locking lugs rotate 90 degrees as the bolt closes.

I wonder how many of the .303 Ross rifles have survived in more or less original configuration, not sporterized or otherwise modified? Any guesses on that?

 

[JRW (QOR)]

.
With the additional pictures, we can now deduce that the rear sight is a Ross made factory rear sight and not a Cooey one.

The rifle was sold for surplus AFTER WWII. Many of these rifles were sent to England when WWII began, and were used as armament for the Home Guard and secondary units while the British Small Arms industry were trying to catch up production.

After WWII these rifles, along with other rifles and equipment was sold as Surplus to the "Trade." That is, to the smaller gun factories in England, who converted them to "Sporters" for export. Some were sent to India. It seems that not a lot of care was done to match bolts to rifles on a lot of these rifles.

As the British Commercial proof marks are on the rifle, I am a bit cautious on giving an opinion as to whether the stock is original to this particular action. Ross rifles were marked at the factory with the serial number on the butt stock, and not on the metal, so there is not an easy way of tying one particular action and barrel to a particular stock. Many have been exchanged over the years, and we see many examples on this fourm of people looking for wood to put a sporterized rifle back to a semblance of original condition.

Go to Milsurps.com for a lot more information on the Ross and other rifles. Pay particular attention to the bolt assembly and disassembly as, even with the pin modification, it IS possible to assemble a bolt wrong. This results in the bolt not fully closing and turning the locking lugs fully closed, with the results when the rifle is fired, the bolt can come back and injure the shooter.
.

This will explain the Ross my father bought after he served in WWII. He bought it at a pawn shop in downtown London, UK and brought it home to Canada. It sat over the bar in the basement until I was mid teens. I remember playing with it, even scraping my thumb knuckle more than once trying to pull the bolt back. Now I have seen those close up pics, I'm sure it was a Mark III.

I came home from school one day and it was gone. I was pissed big time. I know who he sold to, someone in the Scarborough Fire Department. I called the guy a couple years ago, but he sold it to someone in the US decades ago. I found out who it was on the Ross Forum, but he won't sell it back to me.

I've been going through some of my father's old slides hoping to see it on the wall in one of them. No luck so far.