Was the Ross Rifle really that bad, what were the pros and cons of the gun?
Pretty much... I wrote an answer about the Ross rifle previously which you can find here, but I'll just C+P it for you:
To its credit, it was a very accurate rifle. But that is one of the few unambiguous praises it gets.
It was a somewhat complicated design, and had to go through a number of revisions. The Mk. I had a reputation for blowing up in your face, or the bolt flying out. The few thousand made in 1905 were recalled, and the Mk. II was a major redesign. That problem was fixed, but the rifle maintained its reputation as dangerous on both ends. But it was only the beginning really. The rifle still had a lot of doohickies like magazine cut-offs, and wasn't charger loaded (!) despite that being standard for a decade at that point. The Mk. II went through so many revisions, that there was a Mk. II***** (yes, FIVE asterisks) for all the big and small changes it went through so quickly. Depending on the exact sub-model, the sights were modified, safeties improved, stock strengthened and then shortened, barrel lengthened, breakdown of the bolt simplified etc. But as I said at the start, it was accurate as hell, and the Canadian military wasn't going to give up.
So in 1911, design began on the Mk. III , which again was a pretty major overhaul. Most notably, it now had a box-magazine that was charger loaded, and the bolt was changed to use 7 small locking lugs, instead of the previous 2, to prevent the earlier issues of bolt to the face. But that of course was much harder to manufacture, so you can't win them all... And of course, it the bolt couldn't lock, then those locking lugs didn't matter. Which was perhaps the biggest problem. You could reassemble the bolt wrong, and still put it in the rifle without realizing it. And then the bolt doesn't lock, you fire, and bolt-to-the-face still. This was fixed by field modifications, but it was perhaps the most unforgivable design flaw.
On the more mundane side, it was a heck of a rifle to clean due to all those interesting points of design. And if not well kept, it jammed. It was a minor scandal back home in Canada, and a real scandal for the troops in the trenches, where keeping mud out of the rifle was next to impossible. Specific orders had to be given for Canadian soldiers not to throw their Ross Rifle away and find a Lee-Enfield, but those orders were still ignored. Canada gave up on it by 1916, and accepted that the Rifle was not worth the trouble, so Canada started arming themselves officially with the No. 1 Mk. III Lee-Enfield. Sir Samuel Hughes, Minister of Militia, tendered his resignation.