Super Reduced Load for my .303 British Ross Rifle

[Larry Gibson]

Try the Lee TL 314-90-SWC TL'd and sized .314 or the Hornady swaged .314 SWC's over 3.2 gr Bullseye. No wad or filler needed. Shoots great in my Ross M 10.

Larry Gibson

[justashooter]

ross rifles are notorious for their oversized chambers if in 303. some of the later 280 ross rifles had tight chambers, and were very accurate guns. the 1905 sporterized 303 i have is not bad in terms of chamber size, but i do neck size only, as it is the only 303 that i have. IIRC i last shot it with some .312 diameter 125 grain SWC (for 32-20) and about 8 grains unique under teddy bear innards.

[SSGOldfart]

d-man welcome glad you put your 2 cents in this subject 'It was a fine post got me to thinking about going back to a Super Reduced Load 308 load I was working on when I was station in Germany years ago.

[Greg B.]

Have you slugged your barrel? I don't know about the Ross but apart from oversized chambers the Lee Enfield 303 had grove diameters ranging from the correct .311 to a high of .317. Also some of the early Ross rifles had a reputation for launching the bolt back in the shooters face if it was not installed correctly. Not trying to scare you as it sounds like you know what you are doing but it is something to be aware of. Good luck.

[Janoosh]

Great post d-man...my 1905 ross has the same chamber problem.
Not to be inflammatory, but let's put some mis-information to bed.
Ross model 1905 has solid lugs..no problem with this model.
Ross model 1910 has interrupted lugs..this model is the problem child.
When you own a Ross, you learn about the idiosyncrasies of the model. And learn about which model had ..." THE "..problem.
You just need to watch the lugs turn...or not....

[zuke]

Have you thought of pulling down a 7.62x39 round and using both powder and bullet as a reduced load?

[Old School Big Bore]

I'm thinking your .308 is a modern, properly fitted-up, correctly chambered rifle and that's why it's more efficient at converting powder into velocity. It may cost a bit but you might want to have someone set your barrel back and recut the chamber to spec. I know I wouldn't want my eyeballs close to it until then.

[zuke]

Ross rifle's are fine to shoot as is. It's the throat/shoulder area that's been "modified"(butchered)

[sthwestvictoria]

Attachment 97108

Could the rifle have been re-chambered? Hard to tell from just a photograph but the wall of the chamber seems much more straight sided in your fireformed case on the right and the neck region has changed drastically. Maybe post some measurements of the length of fireformed case, inside neck of the fire formed case and diameter at shoulder and base. Some of the smart people here will be able to help you. Slugging the bore is also often useful.

This is the best bore slugging tutorial I have seen. Use pure, soft lead, not WW lead or harder.
http://7.62x54r.net/MosinID/MosinSlug.htm

Could it be a 303 Epps?

This picture may be wrong, I don't know enough. From this thread the 303 epps should have a 42degree shoulder:
http://rossrifle.com/forum/index.php?topic=340.0
More Epps information here, even a book(let):
http://www.303british.com/id20.html

[d_man2]

You know, originally I doubted that this rifle had been re-chambered or modified, but after reading that article on http://www.303british.com/id20.html it has me thinking a whole lot. The dimensions you have provided are looking a lot closer to what I have. It is POSSIBLE that perhaps this gun was worked on by Mr. Epps himself, and perhaps he was the one who bought it from the government and sold it off as surplus to begin with! The business is still there and is a really awesome firearm store; it is only about an hour and a half away. I might just have to throw the Ross into the trunk and go on a road trip one afternoon and see if the company might have any records on this particular firearm. I know its a shot (excuse the pun) in dark, but hey, you never know! Besides....its a short trip to go look at guns..........how bad could that possibly be!?

[d_man2]

I haven't done any 7.62x39 pulldowns YET for the Ross, but it is only list of projects to do this summer for sure! I have done that for some cheap plinkers (when I haven't had anything better to do) for my .308 with great results, no reason the Ross should be any different! And yes for those of you who are wondering, I ALWAYS size my bullets down before I load them in the .308. It is tight, but I use a Lee push through resizer and it works quite well. I haven't had much in the way of spring back issues at all.

[sthwestvictoria]

The business is still there and is a really awesome firearm store; it is only about an hour and a half away.

Then certainly geographically it is quite possible the rifle passed through the shop if it is so close to where the rifle was found.

The friend you obtained the rifle from doesn't have any knowledge about the rifles historical provenance?

[elk hunter]

There's a very good article in the latest "Rifle"magazine. If you can get your hands on a copy it would be informative.

By the way I have a model 1910 that I shoot full service loads in with absolutely no problems.

[zuke]

Post a pic of a fired and live rd side by side and we'll have a better idea.
I got my Ross converted at EPP's about 15 year's ago.

[Texinoz]

I hate flogging a dead horse, but I thought you might be interested in seeing a pic of just how "generous" of a chamber my Ross Rifle has. It is well known that there are many different specs to which the .303 British have been and a picture is worth a thousand words. The first brass is factory new brass from Winchester. Please note where the shoulder is and the length of the neck. The second (loaded with 8gr 800x for fireforming) brass has been full length sized and the boolit has been crimped. Notice the differences in the shape of the brass. The third brass is after the round had been fired. The neck shape completely blew out and all rounds were an extremely hard extraction. A boolit of the same size (.311) just falls out with lots of space to spare. The fourth brass is after the neck only was sized, and lastly the final brass is after brass was reloaded with the same 800x charge and re-fired. Please note the complete difference in the size / shape of the neck throughout the process. In the final load and shoot it should be noted that the brass extracted as it should with no difficulties and no further mi-shaping of the brass. It is apparent that it will take me a while (and many hard extractions) to get a couple boxes of brass ready for this rifle and this rifle alone. I am hoping the end will justify the means to keep this old beauty alive.
Attachment 97108

I think you have a ~.303 Improved (Eppstein) chamber...

[KenT7021]

Check to see if the barrel is marked LC for enlarged chamber.I have three Mk II's and two have the enlarged chamber done to handle British made ammo.They apparently weren't done with a standardized reamer.

[Gewehr-Guy]

Ken , was that done by the importers, or by individual gunsmiths ? I'll try to remember that info when shopping for a Lee Enfield.

[Markopolo]

sounds like fun

[john.k]

AS just about anyone interested knows ,the E chamber was an attempt to get the rifle to eject a fired case ....in shape .its variable somewhat ,but looks a bit like a 8x56 Mannlicher .......Basically ,any military Ross with the CEF roundel will likely be enlarged ,and will be stamped on the reinforce with a large E,EC,or rarely LC............The US govt bought some 1905s as training rifles,and when surplussed ,some of these were rechambered to 30-06 by dealers to sell them off......Any Ross has greatly increased in value of late ,a recent sale of a Mk111B on GB was over $2300.

[Reverend Al]

A couple of years ago a nearby ammo and components distributor had some pulled Russian SKS bullets at a very reasonable price so I bought 2,000 of them for "plinker" bullets in .303 British, 7.62x54R, and 7.65 Argentine. They are 123 grain FMJ's that mike at .312". Just before the world went crazy I loaded some of them into 5 round test loads to try in my Longbranch No. 4 MK 1 .303, so of course I haven't been able to shoot them yet. Hopefully things will get back to normal sometime soon so that I can get out to the range and test fire some of these!