Ross rifle bolt stuck.....

[theboyscout]

So I have a Ross rifle 280 given to me and the bolt is stuck in the open position. From what I can tell and what little there is online, it looks like the bolt is put to get her wrong and not correctly inserted into the rifle. Where the teeth of the bolt are the wrong direction, but I'm not sure. Any help to getting this bolt out is great. I video or picture of how to, even better. Please let me know what you know. Thanks. Pics are attached

 

[Dave DeLaurant]

Have you already watched these C&rsenal videos on the military Ross for clues?

 

[theboyscout]

I got it

The person before me never extended the bolt to slide it in. So it could never get over the trigger. Had to strip the gun down and take apart to slide it out. Put it together and the start from beginning. Took about a hour yo complete but it's a working rifle again.if anyone ever needs info write me and I'll provide what I learned.

 

[tark]

I've got an M-10 sporter myself. It is the slickest, smoothest straight-pull rifle I have ever used. While the Ross Mk III military version had the same action (with a different magazine design) it was universally condemned as a military weapon. The M-10 sporters were almost universally praised. Jack O'Conner gave high praise to both the rifle and the .280 cartridge.

Of course, ammo is a problem. The .287 diameter bullets required are expensive when you can find them. You can shoot .284s in the gun but this creates a small problem. The gas will cut past the bullet in the bore and lead to wear in the grooves instead of the lands. The grooves in my rifle have darkened slightly and I have stopped using them. Accuracy was surprisingly good. Cases can be made from .300 H&H brass. When fireformed the case expands ahead of the belt, as the 280 case is the same diameter as the belt . This only happens once. I have cases that have been reloaded several times and after sectioning them, there were no signs of distress. The cartridge itself is a good one, about half way in power between a 280 Remington and a 7mm Rem Mag. It was the first cartridge to exceed 3,000 FPS, in 1907. The original ballistics were a 145gr bullet @ 3145 FPS. Today's powders can better these numbers by a couple of hundred FPS. The actions on these rifles are enormously strong. Years ago I saw an M-10 action that had been re-barreled to 505 Gibbs and used to build a custom stopping rifle.

When assembling the bolt in the gun, the lugs should be horizontal and there should be approximately one inch between the bolt head and the main bolt body. If the lugs are horizontal but right up against the bolt body, you've got a problem. Attempting to insert the bolt in this condition will result in a great deal of stiffness and resistance to any movement. Worse yet, if you do manage to chamber a round and fire it the bolt will be in the unlocked position and you can guess what happens next. The bolt will not exit the gun, the bolt stop will prevent that, but you will lose a goodly sized chunk of your firing hand's thumb. The Mk III military rifle had this same problem and they fixed it with a pin in the right place, but too late to save the gun's reputation. The M-10 generally did not suffer from this problem. There is a way to render an M-10 sporter to this unsafe condition without disassembling the bolt. I'm not gonna tell you how to do it.

You have doubtless noticed by now that getting the bolt back into the gun is a bit tricky. Every time you almost have it in, the bolt head snaps back to the locked position. Its frustrating but with practice it gets easier. Sir Charles was quite an innovator but he and Elon Musk have one thing in common. They are (were) so busy inventing and exploring new ideas and methods, that they never stopped and took the time to iron out the bugs before moving on.

As you can see from my first pic, the 280 is a longer case than an 06. Sorry about the sideways and the inverted pic. My puter is drunk again