The .280 Ross, also known as the .280 Nitro, .280 Rimless Nitro Express Ross (CIP) and .280 Rimless cartridge, is an approximately 7mm bullet diameter rifle round developed in Canada by F.W. Jones as a consultant to

Sir Charles Ross, 9th Baronet Sir Charles Henry Augustus Frederick Lockhart Ross, 9th Baronet (4 April 1872 – 29 June 1942) was a Scottish inventor and commercial entrepreneur who invented the innovative and often controversial straight-pull actioned Ross rifle. Bio ...

, and his Ross Rifle Company of

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

for use as a Canadian military cartridge as a replacement for the .303 British, and in a civilianised and sporterised version of his controversial Mark II and Mk III Ross rifle, and first commercially produced by Eley Brothers of London, England, in late 1907.

History

The .280 Ross was the first practical cartridge to reach the edge of muzzle velocity. Sir Charles Ross did many attempts while in the process of creating the "perfect cartridge", one of them leading to the creation of the .28-1906 in November 1906. Ross also tried to convince the British War Department to adopt the .280 Ross (and his rifle) as the new service cartridge, but World War I came along and dashed his hopes. The .280 also paved the way for Sir Charles' newly designed bullets, such as "Full Metal Patch" and "Metal Covered Hollow Point". The Ross Mk III rifle was especially developed to handle the .280. The .280 (and the Ross Rifle) won the famous Bisley international matches in 1908, 1912 and 1913 (King's Prize) plus many other prizes in different competitions on both sides of the Atlantic.

Performance

Firing a bullet at a

muzzle velocity Muzzle velocity is the speed of a projectile (bullet, pellet, slug, ball/ shots or shell) with respect to the muzzle at the moment it leaves the end of a gun's barrel (i.e. the muzzle). Firearm muzzle velocities range from approximately t ...

of , the new cartridge qualified for the contemporary designation "magnum". It was used as a military

sniper A sniper is a military or paramilitary marksman who engages targets from positions of concealment or at distances exceeding the target's detection capabilities. Snipers generally have specialized training and are equipped with telescopic si ...

's cartridge,"Out of Nowhere: A History of the Military Sniper", book by Martin Pegler, Osprey Publishing, 2004, p. 135 in addition to achieving some celebrity as an African

plains game Plains game is well established in literature and conversation as the sporting hunter's generic term for all those fair-game species of antelope and gazelle which are to be found - typically in rather open plains or savanna habitats - throughout su ...

cartridge in the years immediately following the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. However the large capacity case was capable of moving the bullets available at that time faster than would be desirable for reliable expansion, causing them to fragment rather than penetrate properly.The .280 Ross (.280 Rimless)
by Chuck Hawks Commercially, the .280 Ross was popular for stalkers in the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries like New Zealand and Canada, chambered in sporting versions of the Ross rifle. It was found to be an excellent cartridge on red deer with a terminal performance comparable to the modern .270 Winchester or .280 Remington. Compared to other cartridges of the period such as the 6.5×54mm Mannlicher, 7x57 Mauser and the .303 British, all with the slower loadings of the time, it was notably superior. Ballistically, the .280 Ross cartridge's performance was broadly comparable to that of the more modern .280 Remington / 7 mm Express Remington and

7×64mm The 7×64mm (also unofficially known as the 7×64mm Brenneke, though its designer's name was never officially added as a part of the cartridge name) is a rimless bottlenecked centerfire cartridge developed for hunting. As is customary in Euro ...

. It works well on all North American game when used with an appropriate bullet. Once the Ross rifle company went out of business after WW1, the cartridge was orphaned as no one else chambered rifles for it. As a commercially manufactured item this cartridge has been obsolete for some years, because of the inappropriate bullets often used in it originally, as well as problems associated with the Ross rifle that it was normally chambered in.The .280 Ross Rifle, A Fast Shady Lady
by Erin Body at Chuck Hawks web site Handloaders continue to load successfully for it, by removing the belt from

7mm Remington Magnum The 7mm Remington Magnum rifle cartridge was introduced as a commercially available round in 1962, along with the new Remington Model 700 bolt-action rifle. It is a member of the belted magnum family that is directly derived from the venerable . ...

or .300 Holland & Holland before resizing or by using swaged and necked-down .300 Remington Ultra Magnum cases. Proper head stamped brass is also available from Roberson Cartridge Company. Hawk 160 grain 286 diameter bullets are specifically made for the 280 ross. 275 h&h 287 diameter bullets of 160 and 175 grain from Woodliegh Bullets should also work. The German round .280 Halger Magnum is based on the .280 Ross case. Load references can be found in the September/October 1973 issue of the Handloader Magazine.The Handloader Magazine, page 29, Issue No. 45, September/October, Vol 8, No 5, 1973. Publisher Dave Wolfe, Box 3030, Prescott, Arizona 86301, USA As of 2020 correct size bullets are available from Woodleigh in Australia and Kynamco (Kynoch) from the United Kingdom.

References

* Phillips, Roger F., Francois J. Dupuis and John A. Chadwick, ''The Ross Rifle Story'' () * Phillips, Roger F., Knap, Jerome J., ''Sir Charles Ross And His Rifle'' () {{DEFAULTSORT:280 Ross Pistol and rifle cartridges Military cartridges Magnum rifle cartridges

History

Performance

See also

References