Ross rifle
| Ross rifle | |
|---|---|
Ross rifle MkIII
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| Type | Bolt action rifle |
| Place of origin | Canada |
| Service history | |
| In service | 1905–1916 1939-1945 |
| Used by | see users |
| Production history | |
| Designed | 1903 |
| Produced | 1903–1918 |
| No. built | 420,000 |
| Variants | Mark I (1903) Mark II (1905) Mark II .280 (1907) Mark III (1910) Mark IIIB (1914) Huot Automatic Rifle (1916) |
| Specifications | |
| Weight | 3.9 kg (9.6 lbs) |
| Length | 1320 mm (52 in) |
| Barrel length | 711 mm (28 in) (Mk 1 and Mk IIs) 774mm (30.5 in) Mk II** and Mk III) |
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| Cartridge | .303 British (7.70×56 mm R) |
| Caliber | .303 in (7.70 mm) |
| Action | Straight pull bolt action |
| Rate of fire | ~20 rpm |
| Feed system | 5-round stripper clip/charger |
The Ross rifle was a straight-pull bolt action .303 inch-calibre rifle 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 and 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By 1916, the rifle had been withdrawn from front line service, but continued to be used by many snipers of the Canadian Expeditionary Force until the end of the war due to its exceptional accuracy.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 3000 feet per second velocity, and the cartridge acquired a very considerable international reputation among target shooters and hunters.
During the Second Boer War, 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.
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Wikipedia