Indians For Guns

An article about interesting rifle cartridges that were well received but have faded away with the passage of time:

http://www.americanhunter.org/articles/ ... now-about/

Interesting knowledge about how and why cartridges become obscure. I wonder what happens to these guns, except may be collectors buying them and they would be very limited in numbers.

Atul

My grandfather's .280 Ross was passed on to my father. It is languishing for want of cartridges.

miroflex wrote:My grandfather's .280 Ross was passed on to my father. It is languishing for want of cartridges.

I am sure it would be very difficult to sell in India due to the limited guns allowed, hence no collectors. The best you could do is transfer it to an Arms Dealer (free of cost) if required and get yourself a good rifle.
In Delhi it is very difficult to sell an Indian 12 bore gun also and if someone wants to replace it, some dealers will take back your old gun free of cost only.

Atul

miroflex wrote:My grandfather's .280 Ross was passed on to my father. It is languishing for want of cartridges.

Miroflex, ammo for your 280 Ross looks like a reloading project, and not just a straightforward one. The bullet diameter issue is, perhaps, a larger issue than cases, which can be worked up. Barnes says you would need a 0.287" bullet (rather than the 0.284" size that's used for 7mm). There are custom bullets available, but even without the issue of importing ammo, this is a gun for hanging on the wall or for a dedicated reloading hobbyist.

Tim,

Are these reloaded cartridges available some where, or are there people who reload specific cartridges on order??

Regards

Atul

Over here, one has to be licensed to sell reloads, and I'm' not aware of anyone selling 280 Ross ammo. It is possible someone does sell ammo, it's just that I have not looked for it.

In other words, reloading is an activity one has to do for personal use over here.

So, my answer would have to be, "I don't know."

There is some activity reloading this cartridge discussed on reloading forums.

Can't you get a mold for a suitable bullet (probably not the original) and make your own with a gas check?

Or you could swage or turn them from larger bullets of stock of various materials.

Commonwealth_of_PA wrote:Can't you get a mold for a suitable bullet (probably not the original) and make your own with a gas check?

Or you could swage or turn them from larger bullets of stock of various materials.

Primers and smokeless powders are not really available in India

The .280 Ross was meant to handle very high pressures. If you could get the brass, and primers, using the same load of powder that is in a .303 British rifle would almost certainly be safe, but there are many steps to take to get to that point. There are likely custom reloaders that would do it in the United States; getting the ammunition to India would be the problem, and the cost would likely be several dollars a cartridge.

If I were to load for .280 Ross here, I would buy the cases (looks like they are available here http://www.reedsammo.com/Wildcat_IAIW.html) alter a lee die to swage bullets of the proper diameter .286 -.287, swage the bullets and use a similar cartridge case volume and caliber as a guide to starting loads. The dies for reloading .280 Ross cost a couple of hundred dollars. http://www.midwayusa.com/280-ross/br?cid=9726 It is an unusual case size. Here is a discussion of the problems from a gunparts thread from 2007:

"Richard - In addition to the info that Mr. Guffey provided there are a couple of things you have to deal with if you plan to use the 300 H&H case. The 280 Ross uses a .287 bullet as opposed to the standard .284 used in our 7mm's. Finding these bullets will be another challenge. Using .284 bullets will certainly degrade accuracy in what I assume is a true bore. Also as Freeman stated the base diameter of the 300 H&H is insufficient for use as a base case for the 280 Ross. Even though Donnelly in his "Handloaders's Manual of Cartridge Conversions" mentions that the 300 H&H case can be used by turing the belt off I disagree with his suggestion because of the excessive expansion the case will undergo when fired - .024 - which in my opinion is excessive especially at the base of the case. You're also dealing with insufficient rim diameter - .532 rim diameter of the 300 H&H vs the .556 of the original Ross case. Certainly an odd dimension and one not easily duplicated or found. Whether the .012 per side difference will affect extraction is iffy.
I would suggest you make a chamber cast protruding at least an inch into the rifling of your rifle - using Cerrosafe available from brownells.com. Following the instructions supplied with the product you can determine the exact dimensions you're dealing with. Regardless of the bad reputation the Ross rifle acquired in military use it was a finely machined rifle which was part of the reason it was unsuccessful as a military rifle. And I would agree with Freeman's suggestion about the use of the Norma cases already formed. Assuming the high build quality of the rifle you should have a good chamber able to allow frequent reloading of these cases.
You might try contacting Barry Cockinos at [email protected] or using directory service in New South Wales. Barry's E-mail address may or may not be still valid. It's been a few years since I've talked to him.
Based on Freeman's research I can see this not going to be cheap by any means. If I find anything that will help I'll post again."

https://www.gunpartscorp.com/forum/Rifl ... 204029.htm