Ross (M-10) Military Mark III factory sporterized rifles?

[smellie]

Barrels have been shortened to 25 inches and recrowned professionally. This looks definitely like a genuine factory conversion although, as Buffdog says, we don't know whose factory, or when, or how many, or a whole bunch of other things.

We have established that the PLY Rosses were used by the Royal Marines Light Infantry out of Plymouth, England, in World War One. There were also Royal Marines depots at Chatham, Portsmouth and Deal, but we can find no rifles marked by them. Going by the known practice of the period, these should likely have been marked CH, PO and DEAL respectively. We have none marked thus, but we DO have unknown-provenance rifles marked CRB and PH....... and even a single specimen of a PLY-marked rifle with a PH bolt and a rear sight of type known to have been used by the Rangers.

Canadian practice at that time was to mark the rifles on the wood; the British marked them on the metal. This causes ME to think that the CLB markings MIGHT be British; the stamps are very similar to the PLY stamps. The rest of the world is quite certain, though, that the CRB rifles are from the Canadian Rangers. Some folk insist that this includes the PLY rifles, which we now can establish are from British service in the Great War.

NOW we have encountered sportered rifles, but with a new feature, and this on PLY and CRB rifles both.

And NOW rifles are turning up with PLY and CRB marked parts on the SAME RIFLE.

What we are trying to sort out has about as many twists and turns as a rattlesnake's intestines, but we are trying to make sense of it. In the end, we will succeed only with your help.

Thanks.