Indians For Guns

an uncle of mine has these rifles from a very long time and looking for ammo.he is in india and they r beautiful guns and suggestions wellcome

Hi Indian,

Which city is your Uncle in? I think I did see some 280 Ross ammo with a dealer in Delhi. It wasnt fresh and think was old. Remember asking the dealer who buys this old junk...and he told me only those who wish to sell their rifles . In case you need more details I surely can check it up. Well most of the people I came across who had owned 280 ross rifles never liked the straight bolt of the
Ross rifles.

AC

The Ross was an example of an excellent rifle that proved totally useless in War conditions ..... that`s WWI by the way. It did acquire an excellent reputation as a hunting rifle post-war until there were a series of incidents when dangerous game severely mauled or killed hunters using the rifle/calibre when it was realised that it was totally inadequate for the role.
To my knowledge no one has loaded .280 Ross cartridges since the 1930s which means that any cartridges found will be at least 68 years old and probably older. Their reliability will be questionable to say the least !
.500 BPE cartridges - and there are four different .500 BPEs - haven`t been loaded since before WWI so are coming up for a 100 years old and the likelyhood is that they are even older. Black powder cartridges of that age will be unusable.
DO NOT, in any circumstances, consider using any of the .500 Nitro Express cartridges in a .500 BPE rifle - the result could be lethal to the user and the rifle will almost certainly be destroyed.
.500 BPE dies and brass are available for those who handload.

Hi Grumpy,

Thankyou so much for this valuable piece of information.

AC

I discussed the Ross .280 very recently - either here, or with Vikram.....or Navi. Can`t remember.
Anyway, there was no problem with the Ross straight pull unless the bolt was re-assembled incorrectly after field stripping which caused the bolt to fly straight back into the shooters face when firing - causing death or severe injury. This happened several times in WWI as the rifles ceased functioning as a result of getting mud or dirt in the action......which happened VERY frequently. The Canadian troops who were issued with the Ross soon came to hate the rifle and got rid of them by the hundreds, picking up Lee Enfields from fallen British troops.

thanks for the replies..my uncle is in andhra pradesh and details of whereabouts of ammo is highly appreciated.i agree with fact that these are crap calibers but he dosent want to part with them.the 500 is a holland n holland

Indian, neither is a `crap` calibre. The .280 Ross was actually a powerful cartridge for its calibre and era but the only rifle chambered for it was the Ross straight-pull. Both are effectively obsolete nowadays.
The .500 BPE has gained renewed popularity in the USA because of the trend for black powder rifle shooting. It will be a valuable rifle if in good order ...... and still worth a good amount if a `clunker`even. If your uncle wants to use it he will have to invest in a loading press, a set of dies, a quantity of cartridge cases, and a good supply of the appropriate grade of black powder and primers.