[ Ross Military Match M10 ]
Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com.
I'm Ian McCollum, and today
we're going to take a look at the rifle
that Sir Charles Ross thought would be
the perfect, ultimate, military bolt-action rifle.
This is his Military Match M10 Ross in .280 calibre.
So Ross had developed the .280 originally as a sporting cartridge,
but thought that it would be a fantastic military cartridge.
It was basically equivalent in power to a 7mm Remington Magnum.
This thing fires a 140 grain bullet at a legit 3,000 feet per second.
Now in a military context that's relevant not so much because it has a lot of power,
which you don't necessarily need, but rather because it's velocity gives it a very flat trajectory.
Which means you don't have to be all that good at estimating range and setting your sights.
If the bullet doesn't drop much, there's no problem.
What Ross did was put together what he thought were the best possible elements.
So he used his 1910 or M10 rifle action,
which was the improved final iteration of the Ross straight-pull system.
However, he got rid of the single stack magazine that the military M10 used.
Instead he has a Mauser-style, flush fitting, double-feed, double-stack magazine.
We have a stripper clip guide right here, so this can be fed nice and easily by stripper clips.
The .280 was a rimless cartridge, which makes it
nicer and easier to use than the .303 British calibre.
Ross put on the battle sight from the M10 rifle,
which has a precision aperture right here, as well as an open sight for snap shooting.
He cut the barrel down, the M10 had used a 30 inch barrel where Ross's ideal rifle was just 26 inches.
Now, 26 inches is still longer than a lot of the other guns that were in use at that period.
The kind of stereotypical short rifles had 23 or 24 inch barrels.
However, Ross's vision on this was in many ways a marksman's rifle.
His bolt actions in just the previous couple of years had
absolutely cleaned house at major long-range competition.
And especially if you consider Ross's combat experience in the Boer War
where long-range precision marksmanship was an important military aspect of a service rifle,
you can see why he came to this configuration as his ideal.
So a very powerful cartridge, very flat shooting, a relatively short and handy rifle,
while still maintaining a very long sight radius.
A very good precision adjustable sight.
There are a couple of other changes here.
The pistol grip has been made a little bit larger than the typical Ross pattern,
so it handles a little bit more nicely.
The sling swivels have been moved to the side of the buttstock
allowing the rifle to be nicely carried across the back, say while one is on horseback.
There's our barrel band up front. It's a nice stout heavy barrel band,
not ... likely to be damaged. And again the sling swivel is on the side.
And this is the rifle that Ross presented to the Canadian, and ultimately
what he wanted to present to the British military as the ideal system.
So in total however, something like probably two dozen were made.
They all have serial numbers in the 10,200 range. You can see this one's 10,247.
And the markings on the receiver are the Ross Rifle Company M10,
although ... these were not manufactured on ... spare military receivers.
These guns were all made from scratch as .280 calibre ... he called it the .280 Military Match Rifle.
Unfortunately for Ross this didn't end up going anywhere,
although it's not such a crazy idea as you might think.
The British were on the point of seriously looking at adopting
the .276 rimless cartridge in the Pattern 1913 Enfield right about this same time.
And so it's not inconceivable that, at least from Ross's perspective,
he might have been able to convince them to use his cartridge, and thus his rifle.
Anyway, it's really cool to get a chance to take a look at one of these,
there's maybe a dozen of them that still exist today.
Hopefully you guys enjoyed the video.
Thanks for watching.