Quite agree with Tiriaq as regards proper training. We were trained with the Number 4 before we went onto the FAL and before the "new" shooting program came in which emphasized area fire over single-round accuracy. I think a Ross with about a 26-inch barrel, as offered by the Company and turned down by the Government, would be quite a rifle and would take second place to none. A man using it would not be under-armed by any standard, insofar as single-round capability is concerned.
The key, of course, must be training. The Americans advertised that the M-16 never needed to be cleaned and then loaded ammo with dirty ball powder. Result: disaster. What put them back on track was a rigorous course of maintenance and a decent cleaning kit. In our army, the Ross Company sold cleaning sticks at 5 cents apiece and the Government refused to spend the money. Then the rifles were used with bad ammunition. The only miracle is that our whole army wasn't killed. Yet the Rosses continued as Battalion and as Company sniping rifles until the end of the war and worked fine..... once they were using decent ammo.
I also interviewed 2 men who were in the company of 8 Batt who ran up through the gas at 2nd Ypres; both got very hot under the collar when I asked about rifle problems. Both fired their Rosses until they were too hot to touch to reload, then picked up another Ross from a Cdn casualty, fired that until it was too hot to reload, then went back to their first rifle. Of course, these men were a Private soldier and a Lance-Corporal; surely mere enlisted men could not be expected to have a valid opinion about the rifle they were using. No, these decisions must be made in Ottawa, or in London.
By the way, does anybody out there have a Ross Cleaning Stick that they could post a picture of? From my understanding, it was a toothbrush-type of thing, ground on one end to mate with the locking recesses in the receiver.
Tiriaq: Thanks for the tip on 54; I WILL follow it up. g.
The key, of course, must be training. The Americans advertised that the M-16 never needed to be cleaned and then loaded ammo with dirty ball powder. Result: disaster. What put them back on track was a rigorous course of maintenance and a decent cleaning kit. In our army, the Ross Company sold cleaning sticks at 5 cents apiece and the Government refused to spend the money. Then the rifles were used with bad ammunition. The only miracle is that our whole army wasn't killed. Yet the Rosses continued as Battalion and as Company sniping rifles until the end of the war and worked fine..... once they were using decent ammo.
I also interviewed 2 men who were in the company of 8 Batt who ran up through the gas at 2nd Ypres; both got very hot under the collar when I asked about rifle problems. Both fired their Rosses until they were too hot to touch to reload, then picked up another Ross from a Cdn casualty, fired that until it was too hot to reload, then went back to their first rifle. Of course, these men were a Private soldier and a Lance-Corporal; surely mere enlisted men could not be expected to have a valid opinion about the rifle they were using. No, these decisions must be made in Ottawa, or in London.
By the way, does anybody out there have a Ross Cleaning Stick that they could post a picture of? From my understanding, it was a toothbrush-type of thing, ground on one end to mate with the locking recesses in the receiver.
Tiriaq: Thanks for the tip on 54; I WILL follow it up. g.
