I'm still learning the site. This morning I typed out a long narrative and added 8 to 10 photos. After hitting, "submit" I received a message that not all field had been filled out (there was nothing left to fill out) and instructed me hit the back button. I did and everything I had done was gone.

So, smaller doses seems prudent to me.

The rifle above is from Sir Charles Ross and was made in the USA prior to his moving his factory to Quebec. It is a rare and interesting 113 year old rifle. I have never seen another (in .256) and wonder if anyone else has.

Here is a quote from, The Ross Rifle Story which details some of the interesting background:

"For the sake of clarity, the sporter version of the then-current Ross, occurring in the .256 Mannlicher, .303 British, and the .370 Express calibers, has been designated the 1901 pattern, since the basic design of the action was settled that year. With little change it became the 1903 Canadian pattern."

"The 1901 sporters were the first Rosses made in any quantity at Hartford. They had Italian walnut stocks with chequered forends, half-pistol grips, hard rubber butt pads, and six-inch top guards; 26-inch barrels with conventional or Lancaster oval-bore rifling; sleeved foresight blocks and English two-leaf Express rearsights dovetailed into mounts soldered to the barrel. The magazine was the same as that adopted for the shop pattern military rifle taken to England in December of 1901, and used thereafter. The safety was a slide button positioned above the bolt handle."

"It was once thought that 1901 Rosses were made by Charles Lancaster, because the barrels carried British proof marks and the Lancaster name. The recent discovery of a letter written by Bennett at Hartford in 1902 corrected this misconception. The rifles were made at Hartford, but were sent to England for proofing. The barrels used had, of course, come originally from Lancaster since the Hartford plant wasn't set up to manufacture them. Rifle making at Hartford ceased in late 1902, when much of the machinery there was moved to Quebec. Output had been minimal since Ross gave priority to working up military rifles for experimentation and trial - a time-costly task as such specimens were largely hand-crafted."

More pictures to follow.