Ross .303 Mk III

Description

Ross Rifle Co.
Canada
M10
Year 1915

Bayonet & Scabbard

Selection of fire formed brass available.


The Ross rifle is a straight-pull bolt action .303 inch-calibre rifle that was produced in Canada from 1903 until 1918.

The Ross Mk.II (or "model 1905") rifle was highly successful in target shooting before World War I, but the close chamber tolerances, lack of primary extraction and overall length made the Mk.III (or "1910") Ross rifle unsuitable for the conditions of trench warfare, exacerbated by the often poor quality ammunition issued.

By 1916, the rifle had been withdrawn from front line service, but continued to be used by many snipers of the Canadian Expeditionary Force until the end of the war due to its exceptional accuracy.

The Ross Rifle Co. made sporting rifles from early in its production, most notably chambered in .280 Ross, introduced in 1907.
This cartridge is recorded as the first to achieve over 3,000 ft/s (914 m/s) muzzle velocity, and the cartridge acquired a very considerable international reputation among target shooters and hunters.


During the Second Boer War (1899-1902), a minor diplomatic fight broke out between Canada and the United Kingdom, after the latter refused to license the Lee–Enfield SMLE design for production in Canada.

Sir Charles Ross offered to finance the construction of a factory in Canada to produce his newly designed straight-pull rifle for Canadian service.

This offer was accepted by the Liberal government of Sir Wilfrid Laurier and Ross was awarded his first contract in 1903 for 12,000 Mark I Ross rifles.

It is generally accepted that Ross' design was inspired by the straight-pull Austrian Mannlicher M1895 Rifle introduced into Austro-Hungarian service in the 1890s and used throughout World War I, and as secondary weapons into World War II. Ross' earliest rifles unmistakably borrowed a number of mechanical details directly from the Mannlicher which was a relatively new design at the time Ross was producing his first rifles in the late 1890s.

The operating principle of the straight pull bolt action comprises a bolt "sleeve" to which the bolt lever or handle is attached. The sleeve is hollow and has spiral grooves or "teeth" cut into its inner surface in which slide corresponding projections or "teeth" on the outside of the bolt head or "body". As the bolt lever and sleeve are moved, the bolt head is forced to rotate through about 90°, locking or unlocking it in the receiver of the rifle. The bolt handle and sleeve thus need only be pushed backwards or forwards to open or close the action of the rifle.

In conventional bolt-action rifles such as the Mauser, Mosin–Nagant or Lee–Enfield, the bolt is unlocked or locked by the raising or lowering of the bolt handle, before the bolt is drawn back and after it is pushed forward.

The single motion required to open or close the bolt of a straight pull action rifle is theoretically faster and easier for soldiers to learn, thus perhaps offering a higher rate of fire. In addition, unlike the Lee–Enfield, the bolt of the Ross rifle could be taken apart without special tools, although this was not necessarily an advantage as it encouraged unauthorized disassembly by soldiers.

Complete with original bayonet and scabbard.

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