1905 Ross MkII

[Greasemonkey]

Let go way off the plantation.. a .303 British straight pull, Designed and made in Canada.     Maybe "Enable" a little

They est.20,000 were surcharged to the US military for training to free up M1903 rifles, later after the war they were suplused out by the Government. During their tenure as a Canadian military weapon, it was found the troops did not like them, totally different design, lower capacity magazine, mud and yuck in the action, or see the warning below, so they switched back to the standard issue Enfield. Britain and France brought some, Britain bought quite a few, and even used them as sniper weapons. Given the accuracy advantage over the Enfield at distance, they were used in target matches as well as sniping roles.

Somewhere in this examples history the stock was lightly sporterized and the front sight protector was removed. I'm guessing many of these met the same fate, being a surcharged weapon and sold off as surplus back in the day. It still has the stock stamping of it's surcharged days, so it's history is not totally gone.

Several variations exist and many retail sporter variations were made as well, in several calibers. At the end of production in 1918 a little over 400,000 were made, through time roughly 3/4 of them ended up in Great Britians hands, 20,000 or so made into the US Military hands, then sold off.

****And as a warning.. assembling the bolt incorrectly on this weapon can cause severe injury and/or death. Check it, double and triple check...The bolt can release when fired.****

The lever below the rear sight is so you can push the mag follower down and just drop in 5 rounds.












Here is the bolt..




The slide button on the bolt handle is the safety, also the rear it has a cock indicator.



Stock markings..

[Phosphorus32]

Great stuff! Don't see a lot of these floating around. They had a reputation for excellent accuracy. I suppose part of the lack of mudworthiness was tight tolerances in the bolt and receiver which probably extended to all other aspects of the rifle.

Let's check my list of straight pull milsurps:
M1895 Steyr in 8x50R, check!
M1895 Steyr carbine, check!
Swiss Gewehr 1911, check!
Swiss K31, check!
Ross...Ross? Where's MY Ross?!

[Loose}{Cannon]

Now there is something you dont see everyday!..   

[xtriggerman]

 The 1905 you have there was the slickest straight pull action ever built IMO. The bores ran a bit tight by a couple thousandths but made no difference with the .311 bullets of the latter days. I ended up with one on a trade back in the 80's. It was already cut down and sanded so I pushed it over the edge of bubba custom wrenching. First I learned about changing out the somewhat rusty barrel for a nice P14 one I had laying around. Problem is, the Ross uses a left hand square 3 threads per inch barrel shank. These don't stay tight like a normal barrel thread so they put a shank locking set screw in the bottom side of the receiver ring that forces the barrel in tight to the receiver. No machine cuts 3 TPI lefty threads so I used the original shank as a bored out and treaded bushing for my smaller shanked P14 barrel. And I put a Rem 700 recoil barrel spacer for better bedding purposes. Then I always liked the SMLE magazines so I welded the SMLE trigger guard  to the front end of the Ross Guard tang. I had to shorten the mag so there could be material for much longer mag feed lips so the mag only holds 8 rounds but feeds them very smoothly. I only need to stock the gun now and put the mag latch in. Some day I'll finish this slickster but you know how that goes!



    Enjoy that Ross, a nice shooter you have there!

[Greasemonkey]

Interesting..

I'd like to put this one back.. I'd need a stock, bayonet lug and a front sight cover. The barrel, I think has been chopped as well. I'm not really heart broken over it, as I didn't pay much and likely will never find the parts to do so.

It will be interesting to see how this action stacks against a Swiss K-11 and a K-31 in smoothness.

[xtriggerman]

It looks like your not the only one looking hard to restore these rifles. Last week I sold a rear sight exactly like what is on yours without the base and it closed for $107.  Cant imagine what an original stock is worth.