Gun-Day Sunday: The Straight-Pull Ross

I must say this is a great article i enjoyed reading it keep the good work.

McBride weighs in on the Ross a little bit in "A Rifleman Went to War", he did most of his work with one with a Warner/Swassey prismatic scope if I remember properly. I haven't cracked my copy in awhile, this gives me a good excuse to dig it out.

Mule--

Please do, and let us know what he says. I don't have my copy here so I didn't want to quote from hazy memory.

SF

jpp

I had a Lee-enfield collector licensing one of those over my station counter about 4 years ago here in Australia! He said he was coming in to register "a couple of old 303s" and the 1st one was an Enfield. He then produced a Ross rifle- I astounded him be recognising it as Canadian and great war vintage, although I wasn't knowledgable enough to recall it was a Ross.

Chapter "Record Scores", page 81 in my copy:

"In order to get this rifle and special sniping equipment, I went, with the permission of Colonel Hughes, back to a newly organized Sniper School, near the village of La-Clytte. There I was issued a Ross rifle--one of a lot made for and used by members of the Canadian Palma Team at Camp Perry in 1913."

...

"These Ross rifles were exceptionally accurate and dependable with the Mark VII we were then using. For short and mid-range work, I am not so sure yet but that they were superior to our Springfield because of the longer barrel and better sights."

There is quite a bit in the same passage about the optics used, mating them to the rifle, etc...I know there's more mention of the Ross elsewhere, but my copy doesn't have an index in the back so it's tough to find.

The first line of that 2nd paragraph should read, "exceptionally accurate and dependable with the Mark VII ammunition..." mea culpa.

From "Duds, Misfires and Stuck Bolts" p 213:

"The first time we were called upon to repel a determined attack, and sustained rapid fire was in order, it was found that the Ross would not stand up under that kind of treatment. Wonderfully accurate weapon as it was, it was never built for fast, rough work. Never will I forget the time: one night when Heinie tried to push our lines in one of his many charitable attempts to chase us out of our muddy muskrat holes and back on to the high and dry ground in our rear and we, with characteristic soldier perversity, declined to go, that I heard, during a little lull in the firing, a great voice, supplicating, praying, exhorting and, above all, cursing the whole Clan Ross. Investigation showed it to be 'Big Dan' McGann, assiduously trying to open the bolt of his rifle using a big chunk of wood as a persuader....The bolts would stick and all hell could not open them.

"We had trained extensively with this Ross rifle, both on the Barriefield ranges in Canada and at Hythe, England, and found it thoroughly reliable and accurate. Even in strenuous rapid fire tests, when fifteen shots per minute were required, it never failed. During a competition, one man fired thirty three aimed shots (all on the target) in one minute, while many others exceeded twenty five shots. In accuracy, up to six hundred yards at least, it equalled or excelled any rifle I had or have since fired--the Springfield NOT excepted."

...

"The first complaint on the Ross rifle was based on the ground that it was too long and unwieldy for satisfactory use in narrow trenches or when crawling over open ground where the cover is sparse...But when they commenced to freeze up on us, it was acknowledged that the matter was serious. They tried all sorts of stunts to remedy the trouble, sending the rifles back out of the lines to the armourer sergeants, who reamed the chambers out larger so the cartridge would not fit so tightly, and all that, but it was a no-go, and the ultimate solution was to take the Ross rifle out of the trenches and issue every infantryman the regulation Short Lee-Enfield rifle."

McBride goes on to talk about tracing troubles back to individual ammo manufacturers and lots (some things really never do change) and later talks about the stories of Ross bolts blowing back in shooters' faces as legend.

"Our snipers, however, stuck to the Ross all through the war because of the better accuracy and incomparably better sights."

He also speaks of his preference for mounting the Warner & Swasey prismatic scope on the Ross because it was left-hand mounted and left the Ross open sights usable.

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