Shot a Ross at 600m saturday morning!

AdrianM

AdrianM

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Hi All,

I don't get over to this side of the forum very often anymore. Spend most of time in precision rifles now.

I shoot at the Camp Debert range on the weekends. I belong to the North Nova Highlanders rifle club that is a civilian target club that shoots at Debert all summer. One of our members brought his recently purchased full wood Ross (complete with bayo) to try it out Saturday morning and was kind enough to let a few of us shoot it. Smooth about sums it up in one word. Never used a slicker action. He was happy with the overall condition but was worried that the bore was shot out. I don't think he worries anymore. We didn't spend a lot of time sighting it in but with three shooters trying it out, all our shots went in the same general area. In fact most of the shots could have probably been covered in a 16" circle. We were all impressed. An outstanding rifle and one I can scratch off my list.

Adrian
 
Rosses are a thing of beauty. I'd love to try an actual Ross target rifle with good ammunition, a .280 match would be the experience of a lifetime. Heck, for that matter I would love to try my M-10 one day!
 
It's little wonder they shoot so well. Huge receiver, super solid action, heavy barrel for a milsurp rifle.

It was pure pleasure. I'd love to take some time and really see what it could do. We all just fired a couple shots of military ball ammo. The toughest thing for me to get used to was the trigger. It was light enough and silky smooth, it just felt like it had about half an inch of travel before the sear let go. Not awful for a milsurp, but when you're used to trigger's that have a few mm of travel and break like glass, you run out of wind waiting for that baby to go boom.
 
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Oh, S**T. SMELLIE have been preaching the Ross Gospel for years and now people are starting to take notice. With Threads like this, now everyone will want one. Well, Manitoba is well established, Alberta and Saskatchewan are coming along nicely, and it now looks like the Maritimes are going to be represented. :D
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Mmmmm. Ross. Dumb old me had a fellow walk up to me at the Canora show with a very nice full wood M-10 and ask if I wanted to buy it. Deaner had to hold me up when I started to faint. I plan to get down to smellie's and let him drool over it. I need his opinion on a couple of things about it.

George has harped on us greenhorns long enough that some has eventually soaked in and taken effect. :p
 
kjohn said:
Mmmmm. Ross. Dumb old me had a fellow walk up to me at the Canora show with a very nice full wood M-10 and ask if I wanted to buy it. Deaner had to hold me up when I started to faint. I plan to get down to smellie's and let him drool over it. I need his opinion on a couple of things about it.

George has harped on us greenhorns long enough that some has eventually soaked in and taken effect. :p
Click to expand...

Looks like our Saskatchewan Representative has spoken.
 
Sixteen-inch group at 656 yards, shooting a century-old combat rifle with factory iron sights. What ammo, is my query?

IIRC, back in the 1960s we used an 18-inch BULL on the 600-yard "Tin Hat" target.

You guys shot a "Possible" with that Ross, is what it boils down to. VERY good shooting, all around. You each deserve a piece of Raisin Pie for that.

NOW you see what the poor Lee-Enfields were up against! It's no small wonder the Brits wanted the Ross OUT of competition.

From what fellows who were THERE told me, I don't think Fritz had too many good words for them, either, although for a totally-different reason.

A Ross is a specialists' rifle. Keep it clean and it works, slick as a whistle. Among bolt rifles, there still are very few which can keep up with it.

"The Ross Rifle was..... unpopular..... due to its length and weight; you couldn't get into a dugout with your rifle slung. // We had NO trouble with the Ross in our outfit but we kept our equipment CLEAN, unlike some outfits that never cleaned their equipment." -- Capt. George Dibblee DCM (Regina Trench), "A" Company, 5th Battalion, Canadian Mounted Rifles, CEF 1914 - 1919.
 
They keep coming here, some battered old soldiers in need of rehabilitation, some looking like the day they left the Plains of Abraham. More of the non originals seem to be going recently to pay for my career change, but I hope to replace them with more collectible ones down the road. Any Ross is welcome for a visit in my home.
 
My first Ross was a worn out 1905 clunker that was hacked up (which I'm currently working on making into a .243) but got me hooked on the Ross straight pull!

My second was a 1905 factory sporter, which looks pretty slick for it's age! (haven't fired it much)

My third and fourth were both full wood 1910's......when I first shouldered it, it sure felt front heavy and long. But once I fired a couple shots I was impressed! I love the straight pull action and the recoil is quite minimal in my opinion.

My fifth was a sporterized 1910 that seems to be in fairly good condition. It's my truck gun so it gives me a chance to show people the basics of what Ross rifles are, when they look at me with a confused look on their faces when I mention the rifle.

I'm hooked! I love straight pull actions! Unfortunately I haven't tested out any meaningful distances with my full length Ross'.......
 
Our good friend BALLSOFICE154 is not on-line much right now: too busy. He will be attending the 60th Annual Manitoba Threshermen's Reunion at Austin, Manitoba from Thursday to Sunday inclusive.

He will be found at the 26th Field/12th Manitoba Dragoons Museum exhibit, attending to zillions of queries from the public.

One of their displays will be an original photograph of 226 Battalion on parade.... along with a surviving 226 Battalion-marked Ross which also served with the Royal Marines Light Infantry through BOTH World Wars. Rifle is a commercially-sporterised Ross, but it is The Real Thing: somebody got lazy while sanding-out the original issue markings.

Would you believe that their little Museum has FIVE Pickelhaubs??

A display worth seeing, I would think. Might just grab Janice and take a toodle down there myself.
 
Smellie thanks for the shout-out! and yes we are busy I'm typing this with one hand while eating a slice of pizza...

Even if we are only there from Thursday to Saturday, instead of Sunday something about the fellow with the wheels needing it to go to conduct a church service.

Your 226 ross will go well with the 20th CFA MK II ross I'm bringing again a sporter and missing a few bits.

Anybody stops by say hi to the young fellow with bandages wrapped around his knees that'll be me.

and back on topic to the OP you lucky dog I havent had a chance to stretch either ross rifles or my legs in a while.
 
Hmmm. My wife and I are heading out on a trip with our little trailer on Thursday or Friday. Austin, eh??? Hmmmm. Now I have to cook up a good reason to go down that way. Darn you guys with your putting ideas into my little head! :p
 
A REASON to head to Austin, KJOHN?

Really, a REASON??

How's about a DOZEN operating Steam Tractors, all at once???

On the way back, you can check out the Carberry Museum; it is Ernest Thompson Seton's cabin, where he started writing all those wonderful books.

If you go a few miles South of Carberry there is a rest point where you can climb straight up a sand-hill to the Carberry Desert: just like Arabia. Don't go in more than a mile: UXO all over the place. Lots of plants that live there which live nowhere else in the world. It is Manitoba's Biggest Secret and it's only 15 miles off Number One!
 
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Smellie asked what ammo was used. This is not for the faint of heart, so any ammo collectors please stop reading right now. I will tell you the truth even if I get flamed.

The owner brought two boxes of ammo. One box was post war ball ammo and it repeatedly failed to fire. The only thing I noticed is that the rim looked a little thinner then the stuff that fired reliably, and even with a fairly strong dimple in the primer it would not fire. So he pulled out another box and it fired fine. It was only after we were done shooting that I noticed that it was dated '44! I chuckled and told the owner that some people would cry if they saw us shooting that ammo. I did notice that the case mouth was coloured as if it had been annealed or heat treated.

We didn't measure the group but we fired 8 or 10 shots at a 600m target on a 4'X4' backer and all the shots were up in the white in the top right corner. Pretty neat shooting. Two of us shot prone and the owner shot off a set of shooting sticks sitting on a stool.

Adrian
 
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I hope you save the empties for reloading. Sounds like Defence Industries Mark VII Ball ammo, (DI headstamp) and Boxer primed. It was some of the best .303 ammo made. Without full length resizing, you can reload it about a dozen times with full power loads, and a lot more with cast bullets, I have a bit over 100 cases that I have reloaded more than 20 times with just neck sizing to hold the bullet and they are still going strong.

WARNING - these have a crimped in primer so a heavy duty primer punch MUST be used. Chamfer the primer pocket after getting the first primer out. Lovely stuff.

While it is still scarce, it is not rare and you can still find it in 32 or 48 round boxes at Gun Shows. I still have about 8 or 10 boxes of it and when my cast bullet cases start showing signs of age, I will fire another 100 rounds and start over again. BTW, I have had these cast bullet cases for over 9 years now, so I have enough to last me for my lifetime.
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Yes we saved it. The owner said he had a bunch of it so he wasn't worried about shooting a box. He wanted to shoot something that was suitable for the rifle.

I thought it may be collectable, so I winced when I saw what it was. I will say one thing, it was quality stuff.

On a side note, my good friend and neighbour recently purchased a milsurp rifle (a vettereli perhaps?) from you Buffdog. Did you recognize the EMT sender email? :D Good to chat with you again, hope all is well with you and yours.
 
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I was not really paying attention to the e-mail address, and yes, a Vetterli went east.

Interesting thing about Canada Post. Although I am in Manitoba, when I shipped the parcel to N.S., I had to pay 15% HST on it. Ontario is 13% OST. I buy and pay for the Postage in Manitoba, which has a 5% GST and do not get charged Provincial Tax at the Post Office for mail or ordinary parcels. Canada Post has still not contacted my inquiries as to WHY we should pay this extra money as it costs people extra for shipping.

We usually let people who want to fire a Ross have a few rounds to shoot when we have the rifles on the range and have gotten into the habit of carrying a bit of extra ammo. It only takes a few shots before they realize just how good a Ross can be, and secondly, there is no smoking crater, mangled bodies or dire consequences of their act of firing a Ross, in spite of all the rumors they have heard of it.

Glad to see you guys had fun.
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