Ross Sporting rifle 1910-M

M

Mike Webb

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Southern N.B.
A couple months ago I saw a Ross sporting rifle for sale that Bubba had worked over. Looked identical to a .280 Ross stalkng rifle but wore a .303 Ross military barrel with the sporter countour 26 inches in length. I purchased it and found that some donkey had filed a 3/8 dovetail st the end of the barrel for a sight plus butchered a dovetail at the rear of the barrel for a Marbles rear sight. The rear was held in place with a gob of JB Weld, haha.
Cut 1 inch off the muzzle and recrowned as barrel wall was too thin under dovetail as the originals had a banded front sight for that reason. Removed rear sight and cleaned up dovetail. Stripped stock and applied ten or twelve coats of tung oil. Receiver was drilled for weaver bases so used a 45 on the receiver ring and machined a 48 base for rear down to same height as front ring. Got some Grand Slam rings and an old Weaver k in good trim. Bore is now 25 inches and excellent. Can't wait for heat wave to end so I can take it to the range.
What do you guys think?
 

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Nice, I have a basement Bubba military M-10.

It'll never come close to looking that good.
 
Mike Webb said:
A couple months ago I saw a Ross sporting rifle for sale that Bubba had worked over. Looked identical to a .280 Ross stalkng rifle but wore a .303 Ross military barrel with the sporter countour 26 inches in length. I purchased it and found that some donkey had filed a 3/8 dovetail st the end of the barrel for a sight plus butchered a dovetail at the rear of the barrel for a Marbles rear sight. The rear was held in place with a gob of JB Weld, haha.
Cut 1 inch off the muzzle and recrowned as barrel wall was too thin under dovetail as the originals had a banded front sight for that reason. Removed rear sight and cleaned up dovetail. Stripped stock and applied ten or twelve coats of tung oil. Receiver was drilled for weaver bases so used a 45 on the receiver ring and machined a 48 base for rear down to same height as front ring. Got some Grand Slam rings and an old Weaver k in good trim. Bore is now 25 inches and excellent. Can't wait for heat wave to end so I can take it to the range.
What do you guys think?
Click to expand...

A .303 military barrel with sporter contour?
Not sure what that is. .303 sporter barrels have a very different contour than a Mk. III service barrel. Much more slender. Is it a recontoured military barrel?
So, the rifle is .303, but has the flush magazine as seen on .280 rifles. How is the magazine arranged for .303? Does it feed well?
 
Further to Tiriags comments, that rifle seems to have started life as an M-10 .280. Not unusual at all for them to be shot/rusted out and require a new barrel. "Could" be an E or R 10 barrel (stamped on barrel at the breech) which would "go right in" with minimal "recontouring". (If any, as I have an E that that has had an R barrel put on at some point and the contour "looks" identical to a .280).
As we know, the bolts (and extractors) from M-10s and MKIIIs are entirely interchangeable, (save a small "clams foot" (protrusion) at the base of the bolt face on M-10s but this in "invenerial" as my CO used to say.
The clams foot will tell the tale for sure if the original one is still fitted.
Finally, once upon a time, I rescued a MKII 1* that had been butchered, when I was 11 yrs old (1957...egads!) and it "manufactured" many hundreds of groundhogs (war surplus ammo) for cattle farmers around the national capital region (try that now with Ottawa reaching to the outskirts of Toronto!) with my "sporter". I still have it, as it is my first attempt at a custom (ugh) but I love it to this day.
You have done an EXCELLANT job of redeeming this M-10! Keep it up.
Best
OGC
 
The barrel displays all the miltary proofs at the breech but have been turned to fit in M Model stock. Rear express sight is long gone. I have been told that the 1910 M was never chambered in .303 so going by that. I have been told on the Milsurps forum that there were a few gunsmiths in Quebec in the 50's and 60's who specialized in Ross rifles. The feed ramp is not notched out as it would be for a single column feed military 1910 action. I am thinking original .280 Ross and rebarrelled to .303 British for availability of ammuntion. Magazine has been blocked up at the rear to feed the shorter .303 reliably. Thanks for the encouragement. I will be the only guy at deer camp with a .303 Ross sporter. I have less than $500 into the rifle thus far so it is a winner as far as I'm concerned.
 
A friend of mine passed away 2 years ago and his widow hauled most of his guns to the local gun shop in Portage La Prairie last month. One was a .280 Ross sporter. Recently she sent me a text picture - 2 boxes of 10 rounds of Kynoch ammo for it. I don't imagine there is too much of that ammo floating around these days.
 
No there isn't. It goes for around $90 per 10 round box IF you can find it at gunshows in my neck of the woods. And pretty sure it is Berdan primed as well. Headspace is very good as well.
 
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Beautiful rifle OP :)

I have a military M10 Ross that someone sporterized before I acquired it. It has a newer stock in the sporter pattern.

The barrel was toast when I got it [303 British], so I decided to fix that. Through Jerry at Mystic Precision, I ordered
up a McGowen in the original contour, then had Dave Jennings fit, chamber and blue the rifle. It has become quite
special to me, and I took it hunting a couple of years ago.....shot a fat WT doe with it.

It is very accurate, often three shots touch at 100M. The action is unique, and it is not hard on brass at all. Dave.
20201011_110745.jpg
 

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