Ross rifle
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The Ross rifle was a straight-pull bolt action .303 rifle produced in Canada from 1903 to the middle of World War I, when it was withdrawn from service due to horrible reliability in service conditions. A sporting rifle version using a new .280" "magnum" round was produced for some time, and gathered a much better reputation.
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History
During the Boer War a minor diplomatic fight broke out between Canada and England, after the latter refused to sell or license the Lee Enfield design for production in Canada. Sir Charles Ross, a Scottish Baronet, inventor and businessman, offered up his new design as a replacement. Ross was well connected in Canadian society, and eventually landed a contract in 1903 for 12,000 Mark 1 Ross rifles.
Although he claimed the design was entirely his own, the action was actually patterned very closely off the Steyr 1890. In this design the bolt locking lugs are mounted on a screw, and when the operating handle is pulled or pushed, the screw turns to screw the locking lugs into the receiver. The design is generally similar to that used on most artillery pieces. Unlike the more common bolt actions from the Mauser and Lee Enfield, the Ross did not need to have the handle rotated to reload, the screw does that, theoretically offering a higher rate of fire.
Service
The first 1000 rifles were given to the RCMP for testing. Routine inspection before operational testing found 113 defects bad enough to warrant rejection. One of these was a poorly designed bolt lock that enabled the bolt to fall right out of the rifle. Another was poorly tempered component springs that were described as being "soft as copper." In 1906 the RCMP reverted back to their Model 94 Winchesters and Lee Metfords.
The rifle was rebuilt to correct the faults and became the Mark II Ross (Model 05). Another minor upgrade resulted in the Mark III, or Model 10 (1910). The Model 10 was the standard infantry weapon of the Canadian Corp when they first arrived in France during World War I.
It was not long before it was realized that the design was still hopeless. Generally when the rifle was used in field conditions the screw threads operating the bolt lugs would become clogged with dirt, and the rifle could jam open or closed. Worse yet, the rifle would sometimes fail to lock closed, but be close enough that it would allow the round to be fired anyway. This led to a number of serious injuries and deaths when the bolt would fly back out of the rifle and hit the operator. The troops took to taking Lee Enfields from dead British troops whenever they could find them.
Complaints rapidly reached the rifle's chief sponsor, the Canadian Minister of Militia and Defence Sam Hughes. He nevertheless continued to believe in its strengths, even following professional advice to the contrary from Sir Edwin Alderson. In particular the Ross was more accurate at long range than the SMLE, addressing a serious problem British and Canadian troops had faced with the accurate long range fire from the 7mm Mauser during the Boer War.
Replacement
By July 1916 Sir Douglas Haig, the new Commander-in-Chief, had ordered the replacement of all Ross rifles by the Lee-Enfield, which was finally available in quantity. Hughes refused to accept that there were problems with the Ross, and it took the intervention of many influential people to persuade him otherwise. In November 1916, Hughes resigned, after Sir Robert Borden's decision to appoint a Minister of Overseas Forces. Ross rifles were then used in training roles, both in Canada and England, to free up more Lee-Enfields. More were shipped to the US in 1917 for the same reasons, freeing up supplies of the Springfield 1903 rifle.
Sporting variant
In 1907 a version of the Mark II was produced in a new and very powerful .280" caliber "sporting" round. The new round required strengthening of the bolt and receiver area, but the rifle was otherwise only slightly different from the .303 Mark II's. The problems with the Ross in combat were generally that it was a sporting rifle asked to work in the trenches, so it might not be surprising that in the original sporting role the Ross became quite popular. The new round gained it a fearsome reputation for medium sized game, and was a common weapon on safari.
External link
- Ross Rifle (http://www.firstworldwar.com/atoz/rossrifle.htm)