Calvin45
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I hear they're equally common in rural Australia haha.You know how I know you're Canadian? 303 British.
Whats the cartridge you LOVE to HATE?
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Playtimefun
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I still want... need (maybe not) a marlin 30-30 but it CANNOT have a push safety. Just wouldn't be the same gun. But man... have they gone stupid in price. Who knew that a new Remington 700 and a 40 year old Marlin would sell for basically the same price
Playtimefun
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Have 2 - 303. Enfield I think its a Mk3. Haven't looked in ages and a Ross sporter 303. Both saw action in WW2.
My grandfather fought in WW1 from 1916 till the Armistice. My dad told me that my grandfather despised the Ross and said that it killed more Canadians than the Germans in the war.
Playtimefun
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The guy who had the Ross was a sniper and apparently a very good one. He had won a number of shooting trophies before the start of WW2 and when he enlisted he brought the gun and apparently they said ok use it. You obviously can shoot with.
It was the uncle to a friend of mine. Apparently there is a local museum in southern Manitoba that has a bunch of his shooting trophies and some of his war stuff. To date I haven't shot either of the 303s, but I have a friend who collects military stuff and he wants that Ross rifle.
It was the uncle to a friend of mine. Apparently there is a local museum in southern Manitoba that has a bunch of his shooting trophies and some of his war stuff. To date I haven't shot either of the 303s, but I have a friend who collects military stuff and he wants that Ross rifle.
I think most of the problems with the Ross were due to the sudden and dramatic ramp up of production and the complete lack of quality control. From what I remember my dad saying is that the straight pull bolt wouldn't seat properly and then that bolt would take out the unfortunate soldier who was attempting to shoot the gun.
All that said I believe this was the main rifle Francis Pegahmabow used when he was sniping in WW1.
All that said I believe this was the main rifle Francis Pegahmabow used when he was sniping in WW1.
Calvin45
Well-Known Member
I've also heard that there was some dimensional differences in ammo made in different plants in the the original .280 Ross cartridge that could result in the weapon either not being able to chamber a round or causing big problems if it did. More over it wasn't idiot proof. It was very possible to re-assemble a Ross rifle incorrectly and still chamber and fire…uh oh!
Finally, it was a finely made weapon, tighter tolerances, orders of magnitude more accurate than the enfield…but also more delicate. An awesome sniper rifle, not so tough for the realities of trench warfare. The lee enfield .303 was a "to hell and back and still goes bang" kind of Beast.
Awesome to see someone knows about Francis Pegamagabow (probably spelled wrong sorry)
Canadian war hero, the most prolific Allied sniper of world war 1 with 378 kills attributed to him. A very talented Indigenous hunter and especially navigator and scout. And a victim of some of Canada's most shameful racism who nonetheless refused to live as a victim. The man won numerous medals for service and bravery, for having not only made all those kills but for going behind German lines alone and rescuing a company of men who had gotten hopelessly lost, enduring friendly fire upon returning them to their own side, also known to have gone into no man's land at night numerous times just to get into position, take one or two enemy soldiers out in the twilight of dawn before sneaking back into the trenches, consistently doing this night after night for the long haul war of attrition that WW1 was…many other feats…
All this to come home to a country that still didn't acknowledge him as a Canadian citizen, a country that he couldn't vote in and had no say in, a country in which he wasn't entitled to the same benefits and recognition as his fellow veterans (and my dad who was born in 1950 notes that he remembers when he was a kid it was still such that Indigenous veterans weren't allowed to be part of the veterans Legion in town…).
this is a chapter of my country's history that makes my blood boil. That he fought so daringly and served so selflessly for a country that still wouldn't respect him as a man equal to any other
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Amen to everything you stated.
I found out about Francis by accident. I am almost as old as dirt. That means that my parents bought a set of encyclopedias. (For the kids here, that is the old-fashioned internet.) I was looking through them looking for info for some school report and there was a short half a page entry for this guy. It kicked off my interest in how Canadians did in both WW1 and WW2 and Korea. Turns out Canadians fought very well indeed, I think as a country we punched above our weight class.
Lol he should've knownMy dad was a reloader and he got a deal on some 303 British surplus ammo. Shot a bunch of it off and went to reload it. Snap went the de-priming pin. They were Berdan primers.
or looked, you can clearly see the primer in good light
Only missed it by one letter, Calvin: There's an "H" between the first "A" & the"M".
Also accredited with 300 enemy combatants captured, one of only 30-something Canadians awarded the MM w/2 bars. Probably would have been awarded 3 bars had he not been an Indigenous Canadian. He also was awarded the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal and was nominated for the Distinguished Conduct Medal but it was "downgraded" no doubt due to the rampant racism of the time.
There's an interesting short bio of this remarkable man at:
Francis Pegahmagabow - Wikipedia
It's a good read.
Francis (Peggy) Pegahmagabow
memtb
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Rcritch…..Thanks, I'll read it! 
memtb
memtbPlaytimefun
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Likewise and did... must be something in the water with Canadians being good snipers!!!
Playtimefun
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Judging by the way I shot in hunting season this year... I've been drinking filtered water!!! No hidden genes showing up with that trait!!!
Calvin45
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Well and at that point CANADA was much more rural…more people familiar with firearms and knowing how to use them.
I've read numerous places that regarding both Canadian and American forces during ww1 and 2 it often was the "Indians" as they were called then and the farm boys that ended up being the best natural snipers. Makes a lot of sense. Farmers/country folk and native sustenance hunters are much more likely to have experience and proficiency with long range rifles than the average draftee. And the indigenous hunters were noted for being exceptionally good scouts/navigators and having keen eyesight
And then as now the governments of our nations lived comfortably in urban peace while continuing to pit those two demographics against each other. We know who the real problem is…not each other…
