Practical Hunting Accuracy ( PHA )

[flytie]

I had heard (and seen one) of the .280 British, but was entirely ignorant of the Ross. For those like me try this link;

http://www.chuckhawks.com/ross_rifle.htm

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Edit: And if you fancy one; http://www.cabelas.com/gun-inventory---wheeling---antiques---1518194-rossrifle-whe.shtml

 

[Brithunter]

fantastic, I want one!

They are beautifully made, old world craftsmanship , feeding on is the trick the cases are not so easy to find and as noted the bullets are larger than other 7mm's you find ammo in the local shop. Even the dies are special order and not cheap but as I say one day .................................. one day

 

[Muir]

Mine is a pure, unadulterated military rifle in spectacular condition. I did sell a friend a 1905 Commercial a couple of years back. IT had been reblued and the stock refinished but it shot well. It was a .303 as well.~Muir

 

[Mauser66]

I like the direction this thread has taken! Old rifles...just the smell of them...the old oil..old 303 cleaner smell..the dented wood...perfect.
Wasn't the Ross sidelined in the Great War as it jammed easily with dirt? I also thought there were stories of the bolt blowing back with pressure. Maybe that was just talk.

 

[Muir]

~I think the Ross's chambering problems were largely due to some really crappy US-Made 303 that was shipped to the Front. Canadian Ross rifles were chambered over size to accomodate. Mc Bride wrote of this in his classic: "A Rifleman Went to War". Ross rifles will put a bolt in your eye if the bolt is assembled incorrectly.

I am a silly duck for old rifles. I have a slew of them and can't seem to put them down once I pick one up. My son calls my gun locker "The Old Soldier's Home". One of my last purchases along this line was a Sparkbrook arsenal 1906 Lee Enfield No.1 Mk III. I found it in a pawn shop covered with dust and took the old boy home for some TLC and gentle range time with some well fitted cast bullets. He's happy now I think, racked amongst comrades. ~Muir

 

[Brithunter]

I like the direction this thread has taken! Old rifles...just the smell of them...the old oil..old 303 cleaner smell..the dented wood...perfect.
Wasn't the Ross sidelined in the Great War as it jammed easily with dirt? I also thought there were stories of the bolt blowing back with pressure. Maybe that was just talk.

It's just talk, jealous talk at that the 1910 or M10 is the only one effected in reality as if you weally .................. weally try you can force the bolt head past it's open/extended position and they with the help of a lever force it into the action where it's unlocked but you can cock the firing pin and fire it with an unocked bolt.

The Ross was finely made as were Mannlichers and the mud and sand from the trenches were problems and the Ross haters came out in droves. As Muir pointed out there was some really dreadful quality ammo made and some American plants really didn't get to grips with the specs of the 303 british cartridge.

The NRA at Bisley tried to ban the Ross from it's competitions in 1913 as it wiped the floor with the other rifles winning most of the major prizes plus of course the ill-fated P-13 had just been dropped I believe after blowing up with ammo problems. The .276 Enfield was heavily based on the Ross but they didn't get the powders right and had cartridge failures. One of the testing committe lost an eye in such an incident. I suspect seeing the Ross breeeching it was operator error.

A missfire/hangfire on which he opened to bolt too soon and didn't take care to keep away from the opening breech . It was the end of the .276 and the P-13 rifle chambered for it.

Kynoch made a downloaded version which they called the 280 Nitro which was needed as folks wanted the .280 Ross but other actions couldn't cope with the chamber pressures of the Ross rifle and either failed or they quickly developed problems such as bolt lugs set back in the seats and head space problems which of course lead to case failures. Yes even the vaunted Mauser 98 suffered with this under the pressures of the .280 Ross. Modern magnum proof pressures are only 20 Tons yet the Ross's was 28 Tons.

Here is another to whet your appetite:-

A model 1893 Steyr Mannlicher in 6.5x53R mm that has a cape rib with express sights on the barrel. This was taken at Bisley outside the Pavillion and the rifle now resides in the US where it's been used hunting Whitetails. No it's not mine and never was I just took and posted the photos.

 

[Muir]

Sweet rifle!

The Ross is a seriously accurate rifle. While many WWI vintage Ross rifles had their chambers wallowed out to accomodate bad ammo, my Ross was used as a training rifle in the US and avoided such a fate. I like to shoot .303 with cast bullets fit to the varying groove diameters one finds. In the Ross they shine like in no other 303 I have. (And that's saying a lot.)~Muir

 

[Nicholas Fahey]

Here is another to whet your appetite:-

A model 1893 Steyr Mannlicher in 6.5x53R mm

another peach of a rifle