After the Ross MKIII was removed from front line duty a French Canadian named Alphonse Huot devised a method to convert the Ross to a full automatic rifle. Using a 25 rd drum magazine it could fire at a rate of 475 rpm and could be belt fed over the drum mag. Mags could be changed out in 4 sec and emptied in just over 3 sec. A magazine could be loaded using loose ammo in just 30 seconds (try that with a Lewis gun!). It used a gas piston to actuate the bolt and was buffered. It employed a barrel cooling shroud much like the Lewis gun. It came in at 19 lbs with a fully loaded magazine, much lighter than a Lewis at about 33 lbs.
Tests in England comparing it with the Lewis gun showed the Huot to be very reliable and much easier to handle vs the Lewis gun. The only area where the Lewis gun was superior was in accuracy. Four Huots were then sent to France in 1917 for field tests and the comments from all who handled it were extremely positive. It actually out performed the Lewis, Hotchkiss and Farquhar-Hill guns in muddy conditions. The amazing thing was that it only cost $50 to convert a Ross MKIII to a Huot and there were plenty of these rifles available for conversion.
Sadly for Mr Huot the war ended before the his design could be adopted and his substantial personal investment was lost (he put up $35k of his own money to fund the project, the equivalent of about $640k in 2015 dollars!). Might have turned the reputation of the Ross MKIII totally around.
Tests in England comparing it with the Lewis gun showed the Huot to be very reliable and much easier to handle vs the Lewis gun. The only area where the Lewis gun was superior was in accuracy. Four Huots were then sent to France in 1917 for field tests and the comments from all who handled it were extremely positive. It actually out performed the Lewis, Hotchkiss and Farquhar-Hill guns in muddy conditions. The amazing thing was that it only cost $50 to convert a Ross MKIII to a Huot and there were plenty of these rifles available for conversion.
Sadly for Mr Huot the war ended before the his design could be adopted and his substantial personal investment was lost (he put up $35k of his own money to fund the project, the equivalent of about $640k in 2015 dollars!). Might have turned the reputation of the Ross MKIII totally around.
The ultimate Ross
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