Ross 1905 mkII rifle with original furniture

[gemslinger]

Hello, new to the board and thought I'd throw this up for your viewing as an opener. Not very knowledgeable about it, but seems to be a fairly low count of these in the US. Lots of burn markings on the stock, assume squadron transfers? Also, on the right, it seems to have a loading assist lever which seems clever engineering for the time. Any and all info greatly appreciated.

 

Edited September 4 by gemslinger

[Garufa]

I know very little about them other than they are Canadian, mostly .303, and yours looks pretty good.

Some of those  “burn” marks on the stock are mostly likely cartouches worn down and dirtied over time.

Have you seen this?

 

Edited September 4 by Garufa

[gemslinger]

Thanks for the reply! That video is a cornucopia of info. This id's my iteration as a mark II long 3 star. Ill check the burn marks, as apparently they are everything you need to know about the gun, including iterations! Thanks again! 

Edited September 5 by gemslinger

[Garufa]

11 minutes ago, gemslinger said:

Thanks for the reply! That video is a cornucopia of info. This id's my iteration as a mark II long. I’ll check the burn marks, as apparently they are everything you need to know about the gun,including iterations! Thanks again! 

Glad I could help.  Enjoy your piece of history!

[gemslinger]

Absolutely!  This will move along eventually for other things, but fun to tinker with in the meantime. Could you imagine being so upset with a gun in the field that you discard it permanently over its performance.  What a rough history for these, lol.

[gregintenn]

That's neat! You rarely see them around here.

[gemslinger]

48 minutes ago, gregintenn said:

That's neat! You rarely see them around here.

Thanks! From what I've read, having the original furniture is pretty rare. Some of the features on this really seem novel and ahead of the times. Shame the precision of it made it a nightmare in the field.

[austin7.62]

The link to forgotten weapons is probably some of the best info you can get on it. I’m sure C&Rsenal on YT has a video on it too, although their videos can be very long, but info packed. I don’t know much about the Ross rifles, but the cartouches in the stock look similar to one of my No1 mkiii enfields. Nice find!

Edited September 7 by austin7.62

[gemslinger]

Thanks Austin7.62.

I got a few other nice finds with this one to include an Enfield 1888 modified by WW Greener. Another find was a VL loader Daisy Heddon that shoots caseless ammo...wild.While they are all very fascinating, I've just not been the collector of old arms, lol. 

[noid]

I'm also new here and also a Ross MkII owner as well. I ended up getting a beautiful example that also came with the bayonet and it's frog. There's US ordnance markings on mine indicating that it was one of the rifles that was sent down from Canada to the US Army for training purposes.

I never quite understood the logic. Imagine being a US soldier in WWI. You've spent weeks being trained on the straight pull action of the Ross only to land in France and be handed a Springfield 1903 rifle

[gregintenn]

On 9/22/2024 at 11:21 AM, noid said:

I'm also new here and also a Ross MkII owner as well. I ended up getting a beautiful example that also came with the bayonet and it's frog. There's US ordnance markings on mine indicating that it was one of the rifles that was sent down from Canada to the US Army for training purposes.

I never quite understood the logic. Imagine being a US soldier in WWI. You've spent weeks being trained on the straight pull action of the Ross only to land in France and be handed a Springfield 1903 rifle

Very cool! The bayonets net and scabbard is a nice touch. Any idea how many were marked “US”? It couldn’t be many.

[gregintenn]

On 9/7/2024 at 5:18 PM, gemslinger said:

Thanks Austin7.62.

I got a few other nice finds with this one to include an Enfield 1888 modified by WW Greener. Another find was a VL loader Daisy Heddon that shoots caseless ammo...wild.While they are all very fascinating, I've just not been the collector of old arms, lol. 

If you get bored sometime, I’d sure like to see them. I bet I’m not the only one.

[gemslinger]

I believe the US marked versions were about 20,000. Ill try to get some pictures up for them here in a few days.

[Gurn]

Beautiful rifles. I’ve always wanted one but they seem to elude me. 

[JustEd]

Great find, congratulations

Thanks for sharing the nice pics