Hi All: My little brother (37) bought a flawless .256 Newton with what sounds like a French Walnut stock and a Brno action, but the school is still out on the action. The barrel just has *256 Newton* on it and the word Sprauge above the *256 Newton* and that is it. There are some of those little standing lions on the bolt and I believe one on the action, but I may be wrong about that. He paid $550 for the rifle. Came from an 85-year-old man's gun collection. The old gent is in ill health and selling off his collection bit-by-bit.
After that is said, I have an old P.O. Ackley book that lists the cartridge among the 6.5 calibers. It states that the original loading before WWI as a 129 grain bullet at 3,100 fps. Duff (my brother) does not handload. The rifle came with two sets of dies, one RCBS that has .256 Newton Sizer on it and the other a set of "Hollywood" .257 dies. That's all I know about it. Now, I do have some limited reloading data from the Ackley book. What I don't know is:
* Is this a .257 caliber or a 6.5 caliber. The original loading for bullets of 129 grain makes it sound like it is a 6.5, and that is the section of the book the caliber appears in, in the P.O. Ackley book, but I don't know for sure. The .257 listing shows bullets from 87 grains to 120 grains. The 6.5 listing shows bullets from 87 grains to 160 grains.
* Do I just run .270 cases through the RCBS Sizer die to form the .256 Newton cases? I have a Lyman Orange Crusher press.
* What is the case length of this cartridge? I can't find that anywhere.
* The P.O. book shows IMR 4350 and IMR4064 as two powders used. I was wondering if H4831 can be used and what would a good starting point be with this powder. The barrel has a 1x10 twist, so I think bullets in the 120 grain to 140 grain would stabilize okay in this barrel. Opinions please.
I cannot find the .256 Newton in any of my other reloading manuals. Just the P.O. Ackley has it, but it gives no case lenght or anything like that.
Duff said he plans to come up to Grants with the rifle so I can measure the proper overall case length and possibly churn out some reloads starting at 10 percent below the book maximum.
Any help along these lines would be appreciated. I've never formed cases before and do not know if just running them through a .256 Newton Sizer is okay, and then just reload, or do I fireform the cases after running them through the RCBS die. Both the RCBS and the "Hollywood" dies have both sizing dies and bullet seating die. Duff siad the Hollywood said it was a seating and crimping die all in one, but it is marked .257 caliber. Thanks guys ... Tom Purdom

I inherited an original Newton rifle chamberred in .256 Newton five years ago. I will relay to you my experiences, to save you the hours of time I put into it to get it right.

First of all, it is indeed a 6.5 mm caliber. The .256 refers to the land diameter, as the British designated their calibers (i.e. .303 British). This cartridge performs best with 120-140 grain bullets, and is very similar in performance to the 6.5 x 55 Swede and .260 Rem cartridges. It's quite effective on deer, pronghorn, and black bear.

To obtain cases, you need either .270 Win or .30-06 caes, and will have to trim a lot off the end once passed through the sizing die. (Try it and you'll see what I'm talking about). I cut the end off with a hacksaw to get it close, then trim the case to 2.410". I saw an old loading manual (Speer #2 I think) which listed max case length as 2.440", but I've never had any problems trimming to 2.410". The cases will probably be discarded before you need to trim them again, unless you load hot.

This gets you to a good place to start, although you should have a competent gunsmith inspect the rifle before assuming anything. I use Rem 9 1/2 primers, and I have found that IMR 4350 works best for 120 grain bullets. IMR 4831 is what I use for 125 to 140 grain bullets. If you would like my personal loads, email me.

[This message has been edited by 6.5 Guy (edited 02-20-2002).]

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Originally posted by thomas purdom:
Hi All: My little brother (37) bought a flawless .256 Newton with what sounds like a French Walnut stock and a Brno action, but the school is still out on the action. The barrel just has *256 Newton* on it and the word Sprauge above the *256 Newton* and that is it. There are some of those little standing lions on the bolt and I believe one on the action, but I may be wrong about that. He paid $550 for the rifle. Came from an 85-year-old man's gun collection. The old gent is in ill health and selling off his collection bit-by-bit.
After that is said, I have an old P.O. Ackley book that lists the cartridge among the 6.5 calibers. It states that the original loading before WWI as a 129 grain bullet at 3,100 fps. Duff (my brother) does not handload. The rifle came with two sets of dies, one RCBS that has .256 Newton Sizer on it and the other a set of "Hollywood" .257 dies. That's all I know about it. Now, I do have some limited reloading data from the Ackley book. What I don't know is:
* Is this a .257 caliber or a 6.5 caliber. The original loading for bullets of 129 grain makes it sound like it is a 6.5, and that is the section of the book the caliber appears in, in the P.O. Ackley book, but I don't know for sure. The .257 listing shows bullets from 87 grains to 120 grains. The 6.5 listing shows bullets from 87 grains to 160 grains.
* Do I just run .270 cases through the RCBS Sizer die to form the .256 Newton cases? I have a Lyman Orange Crusher press.
* What is the case length of this cartridge? I can't find that anywhere.
* The P.O. book shows IMR 4350 and IMR4064 as two powders used. I was wondering if H4831 can be used and what would a good starting point be with this powder. The barrel has a 1x10 twist, so I think bullets in the 120 grain to 140 grain would stabilize okay in this barrel. Opinions please.
I cannot find the .256 Newton in any of my other reloading manuals. Just the P.O. Ackley has it, but it gives no case lenght or anything like that.
Duff said he plans to come up to Grants with the rifle so I can measure the proper overall case length and possibly churn out some reloads starting at 10 percent below the book maximum.
Any help along these lines would be appreciated. I've never formed cases before and do not know if just running them through a .256 Newton Sizer is okay, and then just reload, or do I fireform the cases after running them through the RCBS die. Both the RCBS and the "Hollywood" dies have both sizing dies and bullet seating die. Duff siad the Hollywood said it was a seating and crimping die all in one, but it is marked .257 caliber. Thanks guys ... Tom Purdom

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I have a Enfield model 1917 that my grandfather made,it's chambered for 256 Newton aka 6.5/06 Newtons 256 has a shoulder angle of 23 degrees the 06's 17 degrees 3o minutes my gun has 19 degrees 30 minutes. The Sierra manual has loads listed for 6.5/06. I never heard of the hollywood though. What I did was use a 25/06 die with a .264 expander ball then fire form the case then load. As for the H48331 the Sierra manual (26" barrel and 1x8") has for the 120gr bullet starts at 48.2 grs. at 2850 to max at 54.3 grs. at 3050 fps and for the 140 gr. bullet at 48.3 grs at 2700 to a max of 53.1 grs. at 2900 fps. Case length in old gunsmithing book has the 256 Newton at 2.470" and the Sierra has it at 2.494". Mine has a bull barrel on it and I shot it in spring of 2001 for the 1st time in 47 years. My grandfather died in 1954 and all his notes were lost in flood and my dad never used it.

I'm probably going to ere on the side of caution hear but I would take the rifle to a good smith and have the chamber casted. That would tell your brother exactly what he has and could be used for comparison with the newly formed brass.

I don't always trust caliber designations on custom built rifles.

Thom,

I have a 6.5-'06, and have developed loads for it with IMR 4831 (120 grain bullets), and MRP (125 and up).

jim dodd

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"if you are to busy to
hunt, you are too busy."

6.5 Guy,
I have a safe-queen Newton in .256. I have never paid much attention to it.
The bolt mounted swinging peep sight, set triggers and unlatching the floor plate to unscrew the action from the stock were neat ideas.
What model is yours, I, II, III?

"The Accurate Rifle", Dec 01 issue carried an excellent article on the .256 Newton by Bob Jourdan who is a genuine 6.5 sage. He is staff writer for "Precision Rifle" magazine, too, and has done a tremendous amount of work with the 6.5 Newton and many more 6.5 cartridges. His address and phone nbr are listed in the front of both mags. You should write or call him.

The 256 Newton is not a 6.5-06. The case is a little shorter and with less taper. Jordan is a good reference as well as "Handloader" had an article on it. Do a chamber cast before you do any loading.

Good Luck & enjoy,
John

DaveC,

Ummm, I don't know which variant, I'm not a Newton expert. Maybe you can tell me if I describe the rifle to you.

It has the swinging peep sight, double set trigger, and floorplate that holds the action to the stock. It also has a rounded steel buttplate, Schnabel forend, Mauser-style extractor, and interrupted thread locking lugs. The safety is on the bolt head, and is fairly small. It says "256 Newton Caliber" on one side of the barrel (which is, I believe, the original barrel), and the four digit serial number is 11XX (I don't like to put firearm serial numbers out over the net).

If there is any other information you need to figure out what I have, let me know.

Your's sounds like mine. I'll have to take a look at it tonight, as well as see if I can find some Newton literature.
I agree on the serial #'s, mine is 3XX.
I'll let you know what I find.