I made a Picatinny Rail for my Mk III Ross

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AllenH59
Posts: 479
Joined: Wed Mar 16, 2011 1:26 pm
Location: Prince George BC Canada

I made a Picatinny Rail for my Mk III Ross

Post by AllenH59 »

Good Day Gentlemen:
About 25 years ago I had a gunsmith put a 7mm barrel on a Mk III Ross military rifle. I got this rifle in a trade, and it had of course been a 303 Brit. It was far beyond restoration. I wanted to approximate the performance of a 280 Ross, without the associated problems of Brass, Dies, and Bullets, as they are a slightly oversized 7mm diameter.
The gunsmith did a good job, and the rifle worked well, and was reasonably accurate, but after a few years the scope base broke. He had used a Leopold base, and machined it to fit the boss he had machined for it in the rear sight base. The problem was that the curvature in the Leopold base did not fit the action, and it split. I did not want to just put another one on, so I saved the project for a rainy day.
I had bought an inlet sporter stock for it, a monte carlo style, and it is quite a nice rifle to shoot, although it is 10 lbs with the scope and the 26” barrel.
It has been raining a lot here this spring, so I decided it was time to get to it, after just 8 years.
I bought a foot of 1/2x2” 316 SS from the local metal shop, and it was only $34 including the cut.
I came home and drew up what I wanted and went out the shop. I cut the piece out with a zip cut, and slowly cut all the faces required. I have a horizontal /vertical Grizzly mill, and I used the horizontal axis and a boring head to cut the relief radius for the action ring. I put a little JB weld under both ends, and it seemed to squeeze all of it out as I tightened the screws, indicating that it was sitting correctly.

There was only about twice as much work as I expected, but happily I made one on the first try. I would certainly go broke making these for money. The weaver rings now clamp on the stainless, I doubt they will ever move.
It was for making things like this that I collected these machine tools. Now I get to load up some bullets and see how it shoots, when the rain stops.
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