Description
We are pleased to offer a highly collectable WW1 straight pull .303 Canadian Ross rifle MkIII, rarely seen in Australia.
Around the time of the Boer War, Canada requested the license to build the Enfield No. 1 MkIII but Britain refused. This infuriated the Canadians & particularly Sir Charles Ross who as a younger man served in the Second Anglo-Boer War & was now an advisor on small arms to the Canadian Government. Ross had influence & took it upon himself to design, manufacture & supply the Army with an indigenous Canadian built rifle.
This became the famous Ross rifle which, despite initial criticisms which required a lot of rectification before it could be issued went onto to arm the Canadians & become the only Allied straight pull main battle rifle in service during WW1. Issues identified were rectified in the MkII which equipped the CEF.
The revised & improved Ross rifle MkII was the standard infantry weapon of the First Canadian Contingent of the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) when it first arrived in France in February 1915. Despite the British now wanting to standardise infantry small arms, the CEF was equipped with these until they proved unsuitable for trench warfare & was replaced with the Enfield SMLE in around 1916. The stated reasons for the rejection of the Ross as a service rifle in the battlefields of France was literally because it was built to extremely tight tolerances & unless perfectly clean ammunition was used in a clean rifle, it would jam. Despite tight tolerances being desirable in a civilian hunting rifle, this is not good for frontline soldiers in a world of mud.
The Ross showed itself to be an extremely accurate target rifle before the Great War & continued to be used by many snipers of the CEF until the end of the war due to its exceptional accuracy & was sought after as a sniper platform by Allied snipers even after it was withdrawn from normal front-line use in Europe.
Stories about the bolt flying back are not because of a design fault making them dangerous, but because the design allowed for the bolt to be put back together incorrectly after being removed for disassembly & cleaning, resulting the potential for injury.
After a political fallout in Canada from the negative feedback by the CEF, the Canadians changed over to the SMLE & most but not all remaining Ross rifles were bought by the US after the United States entered the war in 1917. Many Ross rifles were shipped to the U.S for training & second line use. These were stamped with US acceptance markings but the markings visible on this rifle are the original Canadian acceptance marks & there are plenty of them. See photos of the stock.
For all practical purposes, the Mk III was an entirely new design. It incorporated the 30.5 inch barrel & flag safety of the Mk II**, taking that redesign much further. The internal double-stack magazine was replaced with an exposed single-stack magazine & the “dump loading” lever was gone with a charger guide added for loading with stripper clips. A magazine cut-off was employed, but the design that lowered the magazine shell was discarded & replaced by one that restricted the rearward travel of the bolt. The bolt-stop plunger was replaced by a flag lever with three positions (cut-off enabled, bolt release, cut-off disabled). The bolt was far sturdier & had multi-thread locking lugs plus a new rear sight designated the “Ross Battle Aperture” was installed on the bridge of the receiver rather than on top of the barrel, as can be seen on this example.
As can be seen in the photos, this rifle is in excellent condition & functions correctly, despite being marked D.P. indicating it was taken out of service with the Canadians & reserved for parade ground drill use only. This does not mean the rifle has been deactivated or compromised at all, other than having D.P. stamped on it. If unsure, do your own research.
We are not sure about the number as we believe it should be 4 or perhaps 5 digits but this is what it is registered as & what appears on the gun although we think it may have been added to over the years? Any feedback on this would be welcomed as always.
The barrel is in good condition, probably better than the photos show as it’s very hard to take good pics. It could do with a good clean but is shiny with visible rifling to the naked eye.
These rifles are highly valued by knowledgeable collectors & a sought after rifle in its own right, especially the MkIII without US markings.
Please do your own research & make your decision based on what you see, so please view the photos carefully as they form the main description & override all written information so ask for more if desired.
Whilst we check these out for serviceability, the warranty has expired & these are sold on an as is basis. As with all used guns, we recommend you have this checked by a suitably qualified person prior to shooting.
Call for shipping cost to your dealer.
