1905 Ross Rifle

tyler1256f · May 9, 2018

My grandpa picked this gun up from my late aunt who passed, we had taken the gun to a couple local gun shops which some knew a little about it and some didnt.I was able to get help from some members on this board. But wanted to know if anyone else could tell me more about this rifle. I know that it is a 1905 Ross Mark II Canadian Rifle. It has sight hood, the stock, chamber, and barrel are all in really good condition. We will be selling this gun down the road at some point , but not right now most likely would like to hold onto it for awhile. Here are some pictures. Please let me know any info I could pass along to my grandpa would be greatly appreciated.

tyler1256f · May 9, 2018

more pictures

tyler1256f · May 9, 2018

K31 · May 9, 2018

Well known for blowing up if reassembled incorrectly.

tyler1256f · May 9, 2018

It was never reassembled I don't believe

iH8DemLibz · May 9, 2018

Show and tell or the new and improved classifieds section?

Threeband · May 9, 2018

Beautiful rifle. Thanks for the photos.

It is possible to reassemble the bolt incorrectly, but that won't make the rifle blow up. It will just cause the bolt to recoil through your sighting eye and out the back of your head. Otherwise, no big deal.
One of those things you only do once, like Garand thumb.

But they are beautiful, accurate rifles, as long as you keep them out of the mud.

Mawkie is our resident Ross expert. He should be along soon. Meanwhile, you could search for posts by Mawkie, maybe an advanced search, keyword Ross, user name Mawkie.

h2u · May 9, 2018

PM MDS member - mawkie

He's our resident Ross expert - that I'm aware of

Cruacious · May 9, 2018

K31 said:
Well known for blowing up if reassembled incorrectly.

Incorrect on the Mark 2s. It was the Mark 3s that had that issue. The issue, OP, was with the bolt being reassembled backwards, causing the locking lugs to not engage while still allowing the breech to close on a live round and the hammer to drop. This caused the bolt to be launched back out of the rifle into the shooter.

Again, this was only a problem on the Mark 3 rifles.

Besides that, it appears to have done some service with Canadian units during WW 1 and seems to be all there. Serious collectors will pay well over a grand at present for such a rifle. I'd take it out and shoot it a bit before selling as it's hard to find such a fine rifle in .303. enjoy regardless.

TheOriginalMexicanBob · May 9, 2018

The Ross rifles have or had a reputation for fine accuracy but lousy reliability under combat conditions. They were finely made with close tolerances and trench warfare was their undoing. A good hunting rifle yes...combat rifle...not just no but hell no!

lazarus · May 9, 2018

TheOriginalMexicanBob said:
The Ross rifles have or had a reputation for fine accuracy but lousy reliability under combat conditions. They were finely made with close tolerances and trench warfare was their undoing. A good hunting rifle yes...combat rifle...not just no but hell no!

The final ones were supposedly good to go with all of the kinks worked out. The problem was they had defect after defect that had to be ironed out that finally even though they were pretty sure they finally had all the issues worked out, Canadians withdrew them from service, because after 5 or 6 major issues...why chance you STILL haven’t found every one.

That said, even if it wasn’t arsenal reworked to the final version with everything solved, none of the defects were real safety issues (other than making sure you reassemble the bolt correctly, which is easy to tell if you’ve done it wrong/right if you know what you are doing). They were combat/trench warfare issues. Bench shoothing they are supposedly a dream.

Heavy though, so hunting or combat it would be my last option.

Cruacious · May 10, 2018

lazarus said:
The final ones were supposedly good to go with all of the kinks worked out. The problem was they had defect after defect that had to be ironed out that finally even though they were pretty sure they finally had all the issues worked out, Canadians withdrew them from service, because after 5 or 6 major issues...why chance you STILL haven’t found every one.

That said, even if it wasn’t arsenal reworked to the final version with everything solved, none of the defects were real safety issues (other than making sure you reassemble the bolt correctly, which is easy to tell if you’ve done it wrong/right if you know what you are doing). They were combat/trench warfare issues. Bench shoothing they are supposedly a dream.

Heavy though, so hunting or combat it would be my last option.

I own a sporterized one with a cut stock and it comes in under 9 lbs. It's nice and light and extremely accurate. Well worth getting for fun even if no longer correct.

lazarus · May 10, 2018

Cruacious said:
I own a sporterized one with a cut stock and it comes in under 9 lbs. It's nice and light and extremely accurate. Well worth getting for fun even if no longer correct.

That would be nice. I guess if I had more than one I wouldn’t mind modifying one. Or if I bought it sporterized already. I did pick up a 1913 Gewehr 1898 a couple of weeks ago that was sporterized and/or modified to k98k standards at some point. It doesn’t appear to have the 1920 acceptance markings for a Weimar rifle, but barrel, sights and bolt were cut down/replaced to K98k specs and at some point someone also cut down the stock further than that.

A nice looking gun and handy. About 7lbs 8oz. Thumps like a son-of-a-b off bags with that steel butt plate and light weight with a 7.92mm cartridge. Still trying to figure out accuracy as I’ve only shot really old corrosive milsurp in it on my one range trip.

A Ross though...is kind of be tempted to cut back the barrel a little also. At least if I was thinking of using it in the field.

Cruacious · May 10, 2018

lazarus said:
That would be nice. I guess if I had more than one I wouldn’t mind modifying one. Or if I bought it sporterized already. I did pick up a 1913 Gewehr 1898 a couple of weeks ago that was sporterized and/or modified to k98k standards at some point. It doesn’t appear to have the 1920 acceptance markings for a Weimar rifle, but barrel, sights and bolt were cut down/replaced to K98k specs and at some point someone also cut down the stock further than that.

A nice looking gun and handy. About 7lbs 8oz. Thumps like a son-of-a-b off bags with that steel butt plate and light weight with a 7.92mm cartridge. Still trying to figure out accuracy as I’ve only shot really old corrosive milsurp in it on my one range trip.

A Ross though...is kind of be tempted to cut back the barrel a little also. At least if I was thinking of using it in the field.

At the last Maryland Antique Arms show there was one with a cut barrel and stock for around 580. Keep yours eyes peeled, they are out there.

lazarus · May 10, 2018

Cruacious said:
At the last Maryland Antique Arms show there was one with a cut barrel and stock for around 580. Keep yours eyes peeled, they are out there.

Oh, good to know. Now I just need the spare cash...:-)

Threeband · May 10, 2018

Don't bubba that rifle!

Doco Overboard · May 10, 2018

Cut the barrel back? Might as well chop the stock back some too.

DONT muck with it until you find someone who knows alot about that rifle.

dreadpirate · May 12, 2018

My wife's grandfather had a Smith Corona M1903 Springfield. Unfortunately, he chopped the stock which I guess was a popular thing to do in the 60's and 70's. While he did very good job, it never the less ruined the collector appeal. I would not even think of chopping the stock or barrel of that Ross. Just my 2 cents.

mawkie · May 12, 2018

Cruacious said:
Incorrect on the Mark 2s. It was the Mark 3s that had that issue. The issue, OP, was with the bolt being reassembled backwards, causing the locking lugs to not engage while still allowing the breech to close on a live round and the hammer to drop. This caused the bolt to be launched back out of the rifle into the shooter.

Again, this was only a problem on the Mark 3 rifles.

Besides that, it appears to have done some service with Canadian units during WW 1 and seems to be all there. Serious collectors will pay well over a grand at present for such a rifle. I'd take it out and shoot it a bit before selling as it's hard to find such a fine rifle in .303. enjoy regardless.

Thank you, correct on the fact that it was the ill fated MKIII that had the design issue allowing it to be assembled incorrectly so that the locking lugs did not engage the receiver lugs. If lucky the bolt stop would limit the backwards travel but that certainly didn't ensure the shooter would walk away unscathed. Check out Ian's Youtube video of a MKIII being fired in just this mode.
Tyler, glad to see you got photos of your Grandfather's Ross MKII up! Excellent example. I'd bet there are US property marks and SNs on the stock near the trigger guard. Most of the MKIIs here in the US were part of a 20,000 lot purchased by the US government during WWI. They were used as training rifles and then sold off to the public after the war. There are some original Canadian rifles that came across the border over time and they're much harder to find.
But no matter what your Grandfather has a fine example. I'd estimate value at $800-900 in today's market which is strong for good, unmolested examples of Ross military rifles (unlike Ross sporters which are undergoing a bit of a rough patch right now, time to buy if you've ever wanted one).

mawkie · May 12, 2018

Hopefully a better photo of the US martial marks and SN. So hard to photograph the black walnut used on Ross rifles.

1905 Ross Rifle

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