Ross MKII Information

Hi,

I've been presented with a rare opportunity to posses a Ross rifle, a MKII if I'm not mistaken, I've not physically seen it and there's some considerable distance between myself and said rifle so I'm looking for some advise on what exactly I might be looking at so I can go in a little more informed.

I have these couple of photos I've been provided, what I do know is that the front sight hood is missing, however one of my questions is to do with the stock and lack of markings, its claimed to be original and un-altered, if this is indeed the case would this be a civilian market rifle?

Thank you your time and advice

I am no means a expert on Rosses, but two things that strike me as odd is the chamber is marked LC which as I understand it was a military modification in the Great War to enlarge the chamber to make it more accepting of lower quality ammo. Because of that I would expect the buttstock to have unit markings, serial number and such as was common on Rosses, but it is blank. That would make me question if the stock or at least the buttstock was redone. However that doesn't necessarily mean it was redone, maybe this particular rifle wasn't issued before the war and was instead adopted as a training rifle or something, I don't know. Just where I would start with my questions.

US training Ross rifles will have a US and number stamped in the wood pistol grip below the trigger guard. If this is missing, I suspect the wood has been sanded by a later owner. That would also explain the missing markings on the buttstock flat. Front sight hood will be hard to find and the screws are impossible to find. Perhaps our Canadian brethren might know source for reproductions.

The pistol grip looks to have been reshaped a bit, so I expect the stock markings were cleaned off.
It is a Mk.II***. This is the pattern supplied to the US. I would assume that it is one of those. For a time, the US Rosses were sold off through the CMP. Repro sight hoods have been made.
I have seen a II*** rifle that was not military marked on the butt. It was a presentation rifle awarded in connection with a high school cadet corps.
Usually a commercial rifle will have a serial number stamped with very small numerals on the let side of the barrel breech just above the wood line.
If the bore is reasonable, it should be a good shooter, although the LC doesn't help with reloading cases.

I was thinking it was possibly a civilian target rifle, but the LC marking rules that out. Reports differ on whether any Ross MkII rifles were taken to the UK for training purposes in WWI. If they were, it's possible a keen Aussie picked this up there, but one shouldn't over-play that; it used to be easy enough to ship rifles around the world!

Many thanks for your insights guys, I had been leaning towards the stock having been redone at some point but I just don't know enough about the history of these to be sure of it, the LC as a military marking is good to know about. I'll certainly be a little more confident when I get to have a closer look now!

Ross increased the chamber dimensions during production to accommodate the chambering issues. Rifles leaving the factory with the larger chambers had "LC" stamped on the receiver ring on Mk IIs and on the barrel reinforce on Mk IIIs.

And chambers were also enlarged retroactively; for example in the rifles sold to the USA for training purposes.