Fosbery Holster
Well-Known Member
Mossypaw
What a great looking scope, I would find it very hard to walk past that beauty and not buy it, great Historical Scottish name, wonderful piece of stalking history!
Ross Stalking Telescope Write Up
- Thread starter User00040
- Start date
Mossypaw
What a great looking scope, I would find it very hard to walk past that beauty and not buy it, great Historical Scottish name, wonderful piece of stalking history!
Fosbery Holster
Well-Known Member
I've got a Ross that is inscribed to Dugald Mathieson, Glencoe, Sept 1920 from Capt. & the Hon D P S Howard. He was the owner of Glencoe at the time. Still in very good condition and used frequently
That’s got to be a National Heritage “Ross” part of local history to be treasured for generations to come, still being used that’s what it was made for Stalking!
I've got a Ross that is inscribed to Dugald Mathieson, Glencoe, Sept 1920 from Capt. & the Hon D P S Howard. He was the owner of Glencoe at the time. Still in very good condition and used frequently
There must be a good story behind that one! How did you come to own it? Old stalkers scope?
CarlW
Well-Known Member
Wonderful. Thank you.Dear All,
I have been collecting Ross telescopes and doing some research on them. Having found some useful posts on these boards I thought it might be helpful to share my writings through a short booklet that can be viewed through this Google Drive link.
All the sources used can be found on Internet Archive: Digital Library of Free & Borrowable Books, Movies, Music & Wayback Machine if you search for the author and title, but if you want a copy of the British Army 1947 Sniper's manual then PM me.
If I have made any mistakes or there is something that you think I should include, please let me know. I do not cover the principles of observing deer in the field, such as aging on the hoof etc. this is simply advice on the telescope in context of stalking.
I hope you enjoy it, please feel free to download and share if you do.
Best Regards.
Kind regards,
Carl
lochty
Well-Known Member
Bought it in a Perth gunship about 15 years ago. DPS Howard s son, the current lord strathcona is still alive and very helpfully sent me some info and photos.
Very interesting, could you share some photo's if possible?
Most of mine have either initials or names but no luck tracing anything.
Sealgair nam fiadh
Well-Known Member
I have just acquired a Ross telescope, it was on e bay for the ridiculous price of £99 !
It turns out to be a Stalking Pancratic made of aluminium and in excellent condition.
The initials B.V.G could possibly be B.V. Griffin of New Kelso Estate, Lochcarron, I surmised this by looking up estate owners in G.Kenneth Whitehead's book Half a century of Scottish deerstalking ( I know its a long shot ! ).
It turns out to be a Stalking Pancratic made of aluminium and in excellent condition.
The initials B.V.G could possibly be B.V. Griffin of New Kelso Estate, Lochcarron, I surmised this by looking up estate owners in G.Kenneth Whitehead's book Half a century of Scottish deerstalking ( I know its a long shot ! ).
Freeforester
Well-Known Member
Caberslash I can assure you that this is certainly not the case (no pun intended!); the late Col Milne, proprietor of Gray & Co and originator of the modern Gray glass approached my family firm years ago to enquire as to the cost of making 'proper' cases for these, when it became apparent that many professional hill Men were buying the bare telescope only from him and thereafter having us make a professional quality case to protect their substantial investment. I can assure you that despite offering a cut-to-the-bone quotation for handmaking 100 cases (offered at that time at a cost of under one twentieth of the cost of the telescope) it was decided that they were going to be "too dear", and so the resulting cases were supplied by another maker. To see and to handle both cases side by side is the only real indicator of quite why the hill Men were willing to go the extra mile for something that was double thickness throughout, and designed to be all but impossible to squash by hand, and thus afford adequate protection to several weeks worth of wages in terms of outlay. The glass is still absolutely great, but the case supplied leaves a great deal indeed to be desired, to the serious user.
Ross in case above, Gray's in own made case below.
The Ross pictured above belonged to a Captain E B Cook of the 1st Lifeguards, who perished in the Great War, an earlier thread here gives some details as to this particular Captain Cook, courtesy of member Enfieldspares here, who pointed me to his archive details.
Hth,
Ff
ps I recall trying to make and set an eyepiece dust cover into my first acquired Gray's, a la Ross, but ended up buying a replacement eyepiece from Col Milne; he was too kind to give me his real opinion as to my failed bodgework, but left me in small doubt! There was insufficient space between inside of lens housing and the viewing lens itself to permit this addition; some of the Ross glasses had a radial swing-over cover, others I've see. Have a sliding wedged plate perform the same function. When making replacement cases or repairing them I came across very few examples with an objective cover, and cannot truly recall if they were Ross, or other marques. These lens covers often had a slot at each of the four 90 degree segments to facilitate removal and permit air to escape when replacing the cover after use.
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Fosbery Holster
Well-Known Member
Bavarianbrit
Well-Known Member
Sealgair nam fiadh
Well-Known Member
There was a fiver postage, so thats £104 !
Fosbery Holster
Well-Known Member
Sealgair nam fiadh
Well-Known Member
There was a little dust on the lenses but it cleaned up nicely, its as good as my workmates Greys.
It was advertised as a WW1 telescope and it was buy now rather than an auction.
It was advertised as a WW1 telescope and it was buy now rather than an auction.
Fosbery Holster
Well-Known Member
Fosbery Holster
Well-Known Member
If it’s not Ross and it’s just two draw it’s probably just a spotting scope, could be ok for target spotting.
Ross also made two draw telescopes, the problem is that Ross also made telescopes for others, you will see them made for "whoever" but no mention of who the maker actually was,there are clues as in the shutter and in the quality of the glass but to say for certain that such a glass is a Ross would take a better man than me.
There was a guy on this forum who was an authority gave me a lot of information on my glass, I can't remember his
moniker Mac something or other .
maybe not on here anymore if he was I'm sure he would have contributed to this thread.
Fosbery Holster
Well-Known Member
Caberslash was the guy who was on here the last time we were discussing Ross glass.
The chap who gave me the information on my was not caberslash, this was probably five or six years ago
very knowledgeable on telescopes and Ross in particular.
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