Took my new to me Ross to the range

[Doug Rammel]

I was a little disappointed when I cleaned the barrel. It was very dark and the lands were worn. On the plus side the rifle functioned fine. I was shooting some crappy british surplus. Almost every case split at the neck. This ammo does the same thing in my Enfields.

The bolt stuck twice to were I had to rap the handle to open it. It would pull back far enough to rotate the locking lugs but wouldn't go any further. For now I'm going to blame that on the ammo.

With the Sight flipped up and the peep at the lowest setting it shot about 2 feet high. I'm going to make a taller sight to correct this.

I really like the rifle but now I'm going to have to find an unmolested one to go with this cut down one.

Information

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[browningautorifle]

Try some new factory ammo to check function. The ammo you have has lost the elasticity in the neck so it splits. No loss I say. The rest of the rifle has likely been played with and that's why it's not shooting to POA. Don't worry, just keep forging ahead.

[smellie]

Wish you were around here. We could have her shooting to POA in 2 days at most.

Have you checked the rear sight carefully? Some of them have been beaten about and the aperture hasgo dinged and won't lower all the way down to your battlesight position. There are TWO scales on the Ross Battle Aperture Sight (if that is what you are using): one for yards in hundreds, the other scale for minutes of elevation, including a Vernier scale to get it perfect.

Run out a batch of ammo at38 grains of 4895 with Sierra 180 Pro-Hunter flatbase bullets sated to the OAL of a Mark VII Ball round, another batch with Horady 150s seated so the whole cannelure shows, 40 grains of 4064. Try those. They are both a bit mild but they are both accurate loads. Just make up a dozen of each and give thema try.

Make sure your ACTION SCREWS are TIGHT. A LOT of Rosses suffer from bashed-out screw-holes from being shot with loose screws. Only thing to do in this case is glass-bed her, which is not hard.

What do you think of that trigger? Fine, eh?

Glad you had fun.

Keep it up!
.

[Doug Rammel]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll give them a try and let you know.

[mawkie]

You just might be the victim of a poorly reamed chamber if your Ross is a US marked MKII. I know because one of them sits in my safe! At the first range session it was really hard on brass and a disappointment in the accuracy department. I purchased Cerrosafe, cast the chamber and confirmed the bad news. Unlike their "LC" marked Commonwealth counterparts the US trainers don't have a mark to indicate a reamed chamber and I'm not the only US Ross owner to report an over-sized chamber. I've also cast my only LC marked Ross, a British MKIIIB, and the reamed chamber conforms to SMLE specs. I've never shot this example as I have a couple of un-reamed MKIIIs to shoot, but I have no doubt that it would perform well.
In comparison, I have a commercial MKII target rifle (see attached photo for both) and it's a tack driver so it's not the design, just the fault of some ham-handed "armorer".

[Doug Rammel]

No US markings. I am blaming the ammo because it splits no matter which rifle I use it in.

[bogtrotter2]

I have a Ross III that is one of the battleship Canada rifles. When I fire it the case comes out looking as if it has a double bottle neck. Obviously this represents the attempt to avoid the problem with extraction and I was wondering if all of the enlarged chambers look like that. Since I neck size this brass it is not a problem in reloading. My Ross II does shoot very high but is consistent in group size and placement but in not maked with LC so I feel it has not been modified.