Gary - I'm not a military rifle collector but have paid some attention to the military side of Ross. Perhaps others will chime in as well. Regarding calibers, once we hit 1905 and the various 1905 Sporters and going forward to the closing of the Ross factory, the calibers were .280, .303 and .35WCF. Prior to that there were other calibers including the .256 and .370. Some of the very earliest sporters saw such low production that they should essentially be considered prototypes. I am referring to prior to the M1901 action. Yes, Ross had contracts with other countries for military rifles. The U.S. comes to mind, but there were other smaller countries that had contracts as well. Off the top of my head, I can recall Peru. I believe the Canadian departure from the Ross had mostly to do with the problems associated with the Ross in the trenches. As I have said before, the bolt blow-out problem was probably pretty statistically insignificant, but the rifle jamming and the soldiers trying to pound the bolt out with various heavy objects was much more wide-spread. I would say that other than perhaps some .280 sniper rifles, the .280 caliber was not carried by soldiers in France. Curiously, Ross made what he considered his finest military rifle in .280 caliber but there were only 25 of these manufactured. From a collector perspective they are very rare and I believe 21 of them were destroyed by Canadian police some years ago. I don't believe any of these saw any military service. The Ross is certainly a very interesting rifle with both a rich hunting/sporting history as well as military history.
