A friend of mine was recently given a Newton rifle in this caliber. I believe it to be either a mauser sporter or the buffalo sporter. I have not been able to obtain any information on the cartridge itself. Does anyone know of a website that would give me some history on Charles Newton and his rifles ?
Thanks
Rick

Rifle Magazine has an article by Ross Seyfried in the #204 Nov.-Dec. issue. There's been several other articles in Rifle and Handloader over the years. I've actually shot a first model Newton in .256. The Newton bolt has multiple locking lugs, unlike a Mauser. The good ones are serial number 3000 about or LESS. Newton went bankrupt and another 1000 or so of very inferior quality were made after that.

The cartridge is a necked down and slightly shortened .30-06. It's a 6.5mm firing .264 bullets. Performance is about 100-200 fps faster than a 6.5x55 Swede. They're a very nice rifle and cartridge.

Do a google search for "Newton Rifle".
http://www.google.com

Bye
Jack

Cricker~

Any luck re-.256 Newton ??

I have the artcle mentioned above could scan it and send ?? Let me knoow ??

Regards Englander

Hi Cricker: My brother owns a Thomas Sprague (Mashburn Arms in Okla City) custom rifle in .256 Newton. He bought the thing, in absolutely mint condition mind you, for $400 in an estate sale. Anyway, my brother does no handloading at all and this rifle absolutely requires handloading. There are no cases, so I had to get some .270 Winchester cases, run them through a .256 Newton die, trim about one quarter of an inch off the neck, debur, prime and fireform with a 6.5 bullet (140 gr. Hornady I believe),then come back, run the cases through the die with an exact fit to the rifle's chamber, trim again, prime and load. We used H4831 powder. By the way, we had the page from an old Speer reloading manual and I might suggest that by no means should you use those loads. They are way, way, way tooo hot. I cannot remember what the load was, but I dropped six grains or so below max and we were blowing primers all over the place. I think in the final run we were some 15 grains below what the book page states were max loads for the final load. It chronographed at 2,700 fps or there-abouts and was sub 1-minute with five shots. Duffy used it to drill a whitetail on the King Ranch and said the deer acted as if it had been hit by the Hammer of Thor. The overall length of the case is somewhat shorter than that of the .270, or the .30/06, which can also be used. Some of the people who posed on the .256 Newton when I asked about fireforming on HuntAmerica.com recommended that I use the starting 6.5/06 loading data. I loaded up 150 rounds for Duffy,which he said would last him through his lifetime. You might go to HuntAmerica, go to reloading and do a search for the .256 Newton or fireforming with Tom Purdom asking the questions. It could help. Tom

I have a 1977 edition of The Complete Collectors & Traders Guide and it has an excellent article on the history of the Newton Rifles. The factory loads for the 256 were claimed to be as follows;
123gr.-3103 fps
129gr.-2964 fpe
140gr.-2920 fps
The 256 was by far the most popular of the Newton cartridges. It was developed in 1915 and loaded by Remington And Winchester until World War 2. The first rifles had a 1-10" twist and wouldn't handle bullets heavier than about 130gr. The later "buffalo" Newton rifles had a 1-8" twist and would handle the 140 gr. bullets. The earlier Newton rifles had a straight bolt handle and the later "Buffalo" Newtons had a "dogleg" bolt handle like the 1917 Enfield rifles. The biggest reason that the Newton Company did not survive was because his rifles were too lightweight for his cartridges. His cartridges were very advanced for the time and equal to many of our current magnums. The rifles had thin combs and were very slim and light and as a consequence they beat the crap out of anyone that shot them. The 256 was most popular because of it's moderate recoil and excellent performance on game. If I owned this rifle I would definitely shoot it, but I suspect some collectors would go crazy if they knew!

A very neat old cartridge. I have a hand full of original wire core bullets I'd sell if anybody can figure some way to get them across the border?

Cricker,
The most complete information I have personally seen regarding the Newton cartridges is in "The Rifle in America" by Philip B. Sharpe circa 1938. He has an entire chapter devoted to Newton and his ballistic genius. Much of Sharpe's info was obtained from personal interviews with Newton himself.

Also, gunwriter Wayne van Zwoll has recently published an entire book on Newton. I hear it is very good but I haven't had the chance to read it yet.
Good Shooting,
HBB

Charlie Newton also worked for Savage Arms Company.

As proof positive of his genius consider this: Charlie Newton invented the 250-3000 (.250 Savage)

I owned and shot a couple deer with a 35 Newton Peerless, engraved by Harbst. The 35 Newton is the same capacity as the 358 Norma Mag but NO BELT!!

"Chas. Newton, Father of High Velocity" by Bruce M. Jennings, Jr. (Sheridan, WY) is THE comprehensive tome on Newton's rifles.