Didn't shoot my eye out!!!!!!

[15meter]

[smilie=w:

305543

Buddies rifle, he's owned it for years, never shot it before. He was always afraid to shoot it until youtube came along. Dave went through multiple videos on the proper assembly of the bolt before he would bring it out to the range.

He dragged it out and first shot was from the hip rotated down away from us.

And nobody lost an eye!:Fire::Fire:

Very cool old rifle chambered in .303.

After handling and shooting it, I can see why both the Canadian and the British Gov't turned it down. I can't see it surviving in battle conditions.

But it still was a blast banging away with it.

[HWooldridge]

I think the Swiss made the only successful straight pull in the K series, but even those didn’t participate in a major conflict.

I seem to recall the Ross was considered accurate but fragile.

[Geezer in NH]

The Ross was a very accurate rifle on the range. It's tolerances failed it as a battle rifle. Put back together right it is a great rifle today.

[bedbugbilly]

I had a straight pull Ross in my collection many years ago that had been sporterized. It was well made . . . but . . . I never shot it. Before the days of the internet and all the videos of correctly assembling the bolt, etc.. It wasn't my eye that I was worried about as much as my forehead. :-) IIRC, I sold it to a fellow that had several others and knew what he was doing with them.

Interesting rifle and glad you two had a good day!

[john.k]

Prices have gone up some too.....a nice MkIII was sold for $4000+ a while ago,and even the Indian DPs fetch over $1000

[Adam Helmer]

I got my M10 Ross rifle while in college in 1967 for $15.00. I shoot it often with the Lee C312-185 RN cast boolit. My handload shoots to the battle sight at 100 yards.

Adam

[waksupi]

I saw one advertised locally for $125. I went to check it out, of course. Reason it was so cheap? No bolt!

[15meter]

I saw one advertised locally for $125. I went to check it out, of course. Reason it was so cheap? No bolt!

My buddy bought his Ross without a bolt, found one. I believe on "that" internet auction site for $250.

This was in Michigan, wonder if your rifle migrated to Michigan:bigsmyl2:


I think the biggest reason why rifles show up without a bolt is Grandpa was told to separate the bolt from the gun for storage for safety.

Gramma finds this weird looking piece of metal and tosses it. Or knows what it is and tosses it anyway. My mother would have done that, she hated guns in any form even though her father was a huge upland/waterfowl hunter.

Or Grampa croaks and no one can find where he squirreled the bolt away for "safety".

Buddy has a very cool Mauser in .257 Roberts, custom rifle, nice metal work, very nice stock, pre-WWII German scope. It shoots great with the bolt he swaps from his 7x57. Came out of a pawn shop for almost nothing because of the missing bolt.

His kids are going to inherit two nice rifles but only one bolt. Guess if you use the 257 for varmints and the 7mm for deer it doesn't matter that much.

Bolts are easy enough to find, but not at the price he wants to pay.

[Adam Helmer]

I saw one advertised locally for $125. I went to check it out, of course. Reason it was so cheap? No bolt!

waksupi,

Sir,
Thank you for reflective thinking about boltless guns. Back in 1976, my first year as president of my NH gun
club, at a monthly meeting, the question came up about gun thefts. As a lawman, I suggested removal of all bolts from rifles. In my case, I put all my bolts in a .30 caliber ammo can, sprayed them with WD-40 and hid them in the garage.

A month later, a club member was burglarized, but none of his long guns were taken because no bolts meant no gun shop or pawn shop would take them. We have fireproof vaults today. Back then, boltless guns were NOT attractive.

Adam

[Winger Ed.]

none of his long guns were taken because no bolts meant no gun shop or pawn shop would take them.

Getting a bolt for a military rifle is not a big problem, but some makers like Remington won't sell them separately.
If you need one, you have to ship the barreled action back to them so the factory guys can fit and headspace it.

[bedbugbilly]

The sporterized Ross that I had came in a collection of guns that my Dad and I purchased from an estate in the mid 60s. The bolt had obviously been assembled wrong by someone as when you pulled back on it, it would come right out of the action. Again, in those days there was no internet to go by so you were limited to asking those that "might" know something about the Ross. I remember talking with one old gunsmith about the Ross and his remarks was that he knew they weren't popular with the Canadian troops as men had been injured by them with the bolts blowing back. A lot of "hearsay" but no actual experience. It may very well have been that a number of the Ross rifles were separated from their bolts due to people not wanting anyone to get injured by them if they decided to shoot them. Had I not found a person who actually was familiar with then and actually had several that knew what he was doing - I probably would have "parted" the rifle out as I would not want any to shoot t and get injured or killed - based on my own ignorance of the Ross rifle and worrying about whether the bolt would/could blowback - again my ignorance on not knowing the correct way to assemble the bolt so it would not.

[john.k]

Another correction..the Ross Mk III was bought by both Canadian and British governments.......the UK model has simplified rear sight and is a MkIIIB.......unfortunately ,the factory had been paid in advance for the guns,and when production got to 120,000 in arrears in late 1916,contracts were cancelled for non delivery,and the Canadian Govt seized the factory ,and closed down rifle production..........its also interesting to note,in this same cost cutting move,the US made Pattern14 rifle contracts were also cancelled.

[john.k]

The Ross MkIIIs used to be popular as a conversion action for the H&H calibers,being the only military action able to take the length of these cartridges..........A lot of the Indian DPs are seen converted to 300H&H,and I know one in 375 H&H that has been taken to Africa on safari.

[Bent Ramrod]

How do the fired shells look?

A friend had a military Ross in .303 that had had the chamber “relieved” in the Great War to “solve” the sticking problem the soldiers reported in the Flanders mud.

I don’t know how well the battlefield sticking problem was solved; the shells came out looking like the .303 Corncob Improved, and even though the rifle was carefully cleaned and oiled, you still had to yank hard on the bolt once or twice to open the action and eject.

At his request, I took one of the fired shells, threaded it for a rod, coated it with 320 grinding compound and gave it a minute’s worth of slow-speed lapping, spinning the shell and pushing/pulling it in and out. We cleaned the everything up fastidiously and took it out to try.

The bolt now pulled open with very little effort. As a matter of fact, after every shot, we found the action unlocked and the bolt slightly back; just a few thousandths, but back. The shells still looked so horrible, even after lapping, that I was unable to see any signs of incipient head separation, but it was sufficiently unnerving that I didn’t want to shoot it after that. He finished up the box of factory loads without incident, but I don’t think he shot the thing again. At least not in my presence.

There’s an article in a post WWII American Rifleman by H. V. Stent covering Ross blowups. I recall a picture of a demolished Ross accompanied the article. Kind of a scary design.

[john.k]

Ive worked on a few Ross MkIIIs when they were dirt cheap ........the Indian DPs had holes in the chamber,in a near unfired ,mint barrel......In fact ,even with the holes ,the barrel could be cut off and you had a new 303 barrel for a project..........IMHO,the biggest fault with the rifles is the steel is heat treated too soft......soft means friction drag ,and that extra drag jammed the rifles..........obviously ,the design is unsuited for a military rifle,and numerous test failures over a period of 10 years were ignored.

[15meter]

The rounds ejected normally and looked fine. They were berdan primed and look good enough to save for more berdan to 209 primer experimentation.

We even had one "hot" load that blew the primer, going to guess that one was a bullet "soldered" to the case from age. The rest got pulled down.

Found both traditional Cordite in most of the loads but there were several that appeared to be factory loads with what looked like a ball powder. Those also had a boat tail bullet.