Stopped by an Antique shop today and found a Ross ..It came out of a Local Estate Sale ..they found it in the Attic and didn't have a chance to clean it or even figure out what it was.
Ater reading about these , I thought I'd pick it up since ..it does have quite a reputation attached to the name,
Not sure if I'm keeping it though . ..one thing for sure , I won't be taking it out on the Range !
Here's some background from the Web ---
Serious problems with reliability included failures to extract a fired case, and constant jamming of the bolt due to field debris. Many troops were killed by the enemy while attempting to clear malfunctions.
Another extremely undesirable fault was that after disassembling the bolt, it could be incorrectly reassembled. In that case the rifle would pick up a round and chamber it, and the extractor would hold the round against the bolt face, but the seven large locking lugs would not be in battery. The striker would be cocked, and if the trigger were pulled the rifle would fire with the bolt unlocked. Several cases are recorded of serious injury or death from bolt blowback.
Soldiers Regarded the Ross as more of a threat to their lives than the Kaiser's soldiers, the troops threw away their Ross rifles en masse at the earliest opportunity, snatching up Lee Enfields from dead Tommys. The Ross was withdrawn from service in 1915 and replaced by the Lee Enfield.
It did establish a very good record for accuracy, winning the English 1000 yard Bisley Match three times consecutively. Many Ross Rifles also saw service in the Russian Army, and it was used with great success by them in the Olympics in a modified form and caliber (7.62 x 54R) as a moving event type target rifle. It was also retained for several years, with good results, as a specialized sniper weapon by the Canadian Army.
This locking system is very strong and the same as used on heavy artillery pieces. To operate the action the user only has to smartly pull the bolt handle straight back and then shove it forward. This simple movement unlocks the lugs, extracts and ejects the empty case on the rearward stroke, then chambers a new cartridge and locks the bolt closed on the forward stroke. It is very fast and smooth to operate. There is a safety lever conveniently mounted on the top of the bolt handle. A rivet was put into late production bolts to prevent incorrect assembly and solve the bolt blowback problem, but this came far too late. The rifle had already earned its infamous reputation by then.
Canadian weapons were also used by Home Guard units in the Second World War, notably the notorious Ross rifle, and many weapons were shipped to Britain after Dunkirk in the face of serious shortages of small arms.
Ater reading about these , I thought I'd pick it up since ..it does have quite a reputation attached to the name,
Not sure if I'm keeping it though . ..one thing for sure , I won't be taking it out on the Range !
Here's some background from the Web ---
Serious problems with reliability included failures to extract a fired case, and constant jamming of the bolt due to field debris. Many troops were killed by the enemy while attempting to clear malfunctions.
Another extremely undesirable fault was that after disassembling the bolt, it could be incorrectly reassembled. In that case the rifle would pick up a round and chamber it, and the extractor would hold the round against the bolt face, but the seven large locking lugs would not be in battery. The striker would be cocked, and if the trigger were pulled the rifle would fire with the bolt unlocked. Several cases are recorded of serious injury or death from bolt blowback.
Soldiers Regarded the Ross as more of a threat to their lives than the Kaiser's soldiers, the troops threw away their Ross rifles en masse at the earliest opportunity, snatching up Lee Enfields from dead Tommys. The Ross was withdrawn from service in 1915 and replaced by the Lee Enfield.
It did establish a very good record for accuracy, winning the English 1000 yard Bisley Match three times consecutively. Many Ross Rifles also saw service in the Russian Army, and it was used with great success by them in the Olympics in a modified form and caliber (7.62 x 54R) as a moving event type target rifle. It was also retained for several years, with good results, as a specialized sniper weapon by the Canadian Army.
This locking system is very strong and the same as used on heavy artillery pieces. To operate the action the user only has to smartly pull the bolt handle straight back and then shove it forward. This simple movement unlocks the lugs, extracts and ejects the empty case on the rearward stroke, then chambers a new cartridge and locks the bolt closed on the forward stroke. It is very fast and smooth to operate. There is a safety lever conveniently mounted on the top of the bolt handle. A rivet was put into late production bolts to prevent incorrect assembly and solve the bolt blowback problem, but this came far too late. The rifle had already earned its infamous reputation by then.
Canadian weapons were also used by Home Guard units in the Second World War, notably the notorious Ross rifle, and many weapons were shipped to Britain after Dunkirk in the face of serious shortages of small arms.
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