Wow! Are those all yours? Shooting from the Creedmore position is something I have never attempted, but then I never had the proper rifle to try it with.
(Handgun silhouette doesn't count.)

Yes, they are my rifles. They are Ross single-shots - all chambered in .280 Ross (the only caliber chambered in the single-shot target rifle). Ross came out with this cartridge about 1907 and it's case capacity and ballistics are very close to 7mm Remington Magnum. In fact, I use 7mm Weatherby brass to make .280 Ross brass. The .280, with a 140 grain bullet came right up to 3000 fps - very impressive for circa 1907. It became famous based on its performance in international match shooting, winning at Bisley in 1908, 1912 and 1913 - winning the King's prize.

The three rifles pictured are 115 year old collector items vs. using rifles. I don't think I could twist my body into the position needed to fire one. There are only a small handful of these rifles that remain in existence. I do shoot the .280 Ross cartridge in various Ross Sporting Rifles that I own (Scotch Deerstalkers and M-10's.

I can add that the barrels on these rifles are 30.5 inches and they are fully floated. In several ways, Sir Charles Ross was way ahead of the times.

A bit of match history, quoting from The Ross Rifle Story:

"Since match shooters of the day fancies the supine position (reclining or lyaing flat with rifle cradled along the body), Ross designed his match rifle accordingly. The weapon he came up with in 1908 weighed a shade more than nine pounds. It was to prove extremely accurate, thanks to a feature worked out by Ross and Jones that marked a departure from the from the usual taper-forcing cone. The lead of the Ross barrel was made so that the .280 match bullet was a push fit in a parallel passage, giving what Jones described as a 'true lead joining the chamber to the rifled portion of the bore.'"

"Early in 1908, the Ross-Jones-Eley combination had resulted in a superbly accurate .280 match cartridge giving a muzzle velocity of 2,700 feet per second with a 180-grain full-patched bullet. At the Bisley meet in July, Jones put rifle and cartridge to the test and gave what Max Baker, editor of Britain's Arms & Explosives magazine, succinctly described as, 'practical form to Sir Charles Ross' ambitions by setting new records at Bisley."

"Jones soundly trimmed the best match competitors in the British Isles by winning the Waldgrave, Albert, Halford Memorial, Edge and Hopton Match Rifle Aggregate long-range matches. The press in Britain and America was ecstatic. The New York Herald of July 16 declared the Ross, "Champion of the Year." The London Sphere of August 29 noted that, "the wonderful success of the new Canadian rifle had drawn attention of the whole of the shooting world to this really marvelous weapon."

Outstanding stuff. I was aware of the Ross service rifle and its remarkably modern cartridge, but was completely ignorant of the single-shot target models. Thank you for posting!

* A footnote: Do not be surprised if someone posts of having shot long-range toes-forward -- using the Keith back position for sixgun.

Bill -

Glad you enjoyed the information.

I suppose with all of these long-range revolves out there, the toes-forward position is probably building a following. I would enjoy seeing photos.

It's a cold, rainy gloomy day here and my planned range trip was canceled. I've immersed myself in reading about some of the match shooting that occurred across the pond 112 years ago. It is fun to hold the rifles that surely did some of that shooting. It's also interesting to read about the evolution of rifles, bullets, powders etc. Sir Charles Ross (and his associates) were right in the thick of it. Here is another excerpt from the Ross Rifle Story:

"The year 1911 saw the spectacular comeback of the Ross Match Rifle using Ross Match .280 ammunition. A crack Irish rifleman named Maurice Blood used the combination to win the Match Rifle Championship of Bisley, taking a record 13 prizes, including consecutive victories in the Bass, Edge, Halford Memorial and Wimbledon Cup match competitions. Ross had overcome the ammunition problem by using cases manufactured to his specifications but the United States Cartridge Company, and 174 grain, hollownose bullets made in the Quebec factory on a special machine of his own invention. The bullet, with a soft iron jacket coated with a wax-graphite mixture, developed a muzzle velocity of 2,638 feet per second."

"The phenomenal success of the Ross in the 1911 match competitions was greeted with frosty skepticism in some quarters. There were those who suggested that the Ross had simply had a lucky break. At Cambridge during a pre-Bisley competition, a .375/303 rifle using MD cordite loads blew up. Subsequently, all .375/303 match ammunition using that propellant was barred from use in competitive shooting and riflemen who used this calibre had to rely on older stocks of purportedly inferior quality. The inference was that the Cambridge accident had left the field open to the Ross and those who decried the rifle insinuated that if the the accident hadn't occurred, the results at Bisley in 1911 would have been quite another story"

"The validity of this supposition was put to the test in 1912 when the bet .375/303 match ammunition British manufacturers could produce was pitted against the Ross and USCCo. M .280 match ammunition made and loaded strictly to Ross' specifications. If 1911 had been a banner year for Ross, 1912 was even better. Shooters using Ross match rifles and ammunition won 50 of 94 prizes in the match rifle list. In cash this mean L278 of a possible L373. A host of old records fell, and example occurring in the King's-Norton match, fired at 1,200 yards where a Ross rifle and ammunition shot by Canada's George Mortimer made a new world's record of 73 out of 75. Ross shooters won 50 per cent of the prizes in the Waldgrave, Bass, and Edge matches, two out of four in the Kings-Norton, and six out of seven in the Hopton Aggregate, with more than 50 per cent of the prize money being claimed in all shoots but one. The Irishman, Blood, and the Canadian, Mortimer, were the top shooters, winning eight of 13 competitions.

"Although the 1912 Canadian Bisley team did well in the service rifle class, Canada had to wait until 1913 to again win the the King's prize, which went to Private W.A. Hawkins. He used a MkII** equipped with the screw elevating rear sight adopted that year for service use in Canada."

"During the the year 1911 and 1912 Ross was truly master of Bisley. Never before in history had one man's name so dominated the scene there. The calibre .303 Ross MkII** was without peer among the service rifles of the Commonwealth and Ross .280 match ammunition proved beyond doubt that smaller caliber bullets driven at high speed had unsurpassed accuracy."

Very interesting, thank you.

Do you perhaps know when and why the toes-forward position went out of fashion?

I have tried a few times to get into the toes-forward position, but found it impossibly uncomfortable. I just can't hold my head steady enough.

Peter - that's a good question. Unfortunately I don't know the answer. I hope someone here does and can chime in. It's been a while since I tried to twist myself into that position. I found it very awkward and to imagine myself shooting a target 1200 yards away is very difficult to picture.

I would like to know what years these Ross long-range single shot rifles were used in the various matches. I've done some searching and found very little. As seen in my other topic about Ross .303 target rifles, there were two main styles of Ross rifles used in long range competition. Many of the references I've seen to Ross rifles that were used, do not specify which style target rifle. I have seen several photos of various Ross rifle shooting teams and in nearly all of them, they are clearly holding MkII** rifles vs. single-shot rifles.

Ross,
I'm a toes backward long range competitor. I too have enjoyed reading about the old long range matches held at Creedmoor, Bisley, and Camp Perry.
I also could not get myself into the supine position (59 years old now) but those old shooters were some tough SOB's. One good old story is about George Farr in the 1921 Wimbledon match, 70 consecutive bullseyes and the match was called due to failing light. All done with a 1903 Springfield, albeit in the toes rearward position.
Thank you for posting those pictures, I had never known about the specialized single shot Ross rifles.

Gundog -

Glad you enjoyed the photos. Yes, I had read about, "Dad" Farr's shooting exploits. Quite remarkable. I do recall the fading light aspect of one of the matches.