# .256 Newton - Happy Anniversary



## wyogoob

2013 marks the 100th anniversary of the .256 Newton.

The .256 Newton was a formidable weapon for it's time: chrome-vanadium steel, segmented parabolic rifling, interrupted-thread multiple locking lugs, double-set triggers standard, an optional peep sight on the end of the bolt and one of the first big game hunting rifles to break the 3000 fps barrier.

The .256 Newton is 6.5 (.264") caliber. The inventor, Charles Newton, follwed the European tradition of measuring the bore to the top of rifling not to the bottom of the grooves. Charles Newton was to many "the father of the modern bolt action hunting rifle" He developed numerous calibers: 22 Hi-power Savage, 250-3000 Savage, 25 Newton, 256 Newton, 30 Newton, 33 Newton, 38 Newton, and the 40 Newton. All of these cartridges exhibited exceptional velocity for their caliber especially given the era they were introduced.

The Winchester .270 and the Great Depression took their toll on the Buffalo Arms Newton .256 rifle. Newton's "hot" calibers soon went out of favor and Buffalo Arms went out of business. Manufacture of .256 Newton ammo was discontinued during World War II.

1916 First Model Buffalo Arms .256 Newton:


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## longbow

That's a neat rifle and caliber Goob. I love looking at guns like that and wonder what the history of that particular gun is. How many animals have been shot by that gun? How many young kids were introduced to hunting and shooting? Who were the previous owners and why did they let it slip though their possession? Where did that gouge in the stock come from?
Good post Goob.


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## Cooky

That’s a beauty, you have to love the work that went into a gun like that. The sights on that would cost more to make than a whole plastic wonder gun from nowadays.


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## outdoorser

Love the post goob.


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## wyogoob

Circa 1916:



Original .256 used brass:

http://smg.photobucket.com/user/wyo...256Newton1916_front_a_sm_zps7d8bf6a0.jpg.html


Newton Arms Company:


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## wyogoob

The stock model Buffalo Arms .256 Newton rifle sold for $40.00 in 1914. The optional bolt-mounted peep sight was $3.00


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## wyogoob

The bore of the barrel on this rifle is oval, not round. I think we call it "parabolic" these days.

Theory is the projectile doesn't have to contact the lands and grooves all the time, slowing the bullet down as it travels down the tube.


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## Kevin D

How much of that gun is original goob? I am not an expert, but it appears the stock has been refinished and the barrel reblued, or is it really in that pristine of condition?? Also, was the rifle made with a bent bolt handle to accommodate a scope or was that done at a later date?? How accurate is it with the parabolic barrel?? 

It is an interesting piece, a rifle ahead of its time. I wish it was mine......:-x


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## wyogoob

I was wrong. This particular rifle has segmented-polygonal rifling, not parabolic rifling. Newton made 3 different kinds of rifled barrels for the 1916 model; Springfield rifling, segmented-polygonal rifling, and the parabolic.

This one has the "o--o" barrel code; segmented-polygonal rifling:
http://smg.photobucket.com/user/wyo...on/256Newton_namestamp_a_zps1a81da39.jpg.html


And yes, it has been refinished and re-blued.

The bolt is original:


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## Mavis13

What in the world is a segmented-polygonal barrel??


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## wyogoob

Mavis13 said:


> What in the world is a segmented-polygonal barrel??


Polygonal rifling has smooth hills and valleys, not sharp grooves and lands. It's been around for a long time and it's still popular in Europe. Glock uses polygonal rifling.

I can't remember what "segmental" means. There's an explanation of it in the 1916 (repo) Newton catalog I have. I will look it up.


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## DallanC

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polygonal_rifling

-DallanC


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## wyogoob

http://books.google.com/books?id=tuVUMLRE47UC&pg=PA19&lpg=PA19&dq=newton+rifling&source=bl&ots=tJBrx1scEA&sig=iTk-Od99sDuUZ0ObJCJjXwagNXs&hl=en&sa=X&ei=zpmEU-SxI4v6oATHmoLQBQ&ved=0CDgQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=newton%20rifling&f=false


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## AF CYN

The round kinda' reminds me of a 6.5 x 55 Swedish. I'm guessing it holds a bit more powder based on velocities? 

Very cool. Thanks for sharing.


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## Loke

More along the lines of the 6.5mm/06. Or 6.5mm/284. Or 6.5 Remington Magnum. Possibly (probably) the inspiration for the perfect mule deer caliber. The _270 WINCHESTER_.


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## AF CYN

Loke said:


> More along the lines of the 6.5mm/06. Or 6.5mm/284. Or 6.5 Remington Magnum. Possibly (probably) the inspiration for the perfect mule deer caliber. The _270 WINCHESTER_.


Interesting. I want one.


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## Loke

A 270? we have bunches of them down at the store.


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## wyogoob

Speaking of powders. From the Newton Rifle Book:

_.256 Newton

The .256 Newton was designed, appeared in advertisements and added to the line of Newton rifle calibers in 1914 as the ".256 Newton HighPower Cartridge." This caliber was offered throughout Newton rifle production in all models. Rather than the 117-grain bullet of the .25 caliber, the new cartridge was first loaded with a 123-grain bullet, which had a better sectional density and ballistic coefficient. The shell used was a shortened .30 USG necked down to .256 caliber. The bullet was Newton's design-a protected point, heat insulated spitzer with a copper jacket that left the bore at 3,100 fps. The powder used was DuPont Military No. 10, which burned cooler and caused less erosion to the bore........................._

Remarkable, 3100 fps with a 123 grain, 264 caliber bullet in 1914.

Dupont Military No. 10 powder was developed in 1910 and by 1940 was developed into what we now know as IMR (Improved Military Rifle) 4350.

"30 USG" is a 30-40 Krag


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## wyogoob

Talking about the crazy configuration of the bore and shooting at 1,000 yards, all 100 years ago!!



From the Newton Arms Company _Modern High Power Rifles and Ammunition_ manufacturers and dealers book.

.


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## LostLouisianian

You can tell that was made back in a day when quality mattered and people took pride in their work...


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## Loke

Does that make it a smooth-bore rifle?


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## wyogoob

Loke said:


> Does that make it a smooth-bore rifle?


In a way, yes.

Chas Newton says: 
_".........In fact it is a two-groove rifling with the corners smoothed down. The advantages of this form of rifling are in its offering of less resistance to the bullet; greater accuracy; less strain on the bullet jacket and less likelihood of splitting; greater durability,.........The inside of the barrel being as smooth as that of a shotgun, it cleans as easily as a shotgun."_

Speaking of shotguns, Remington has gone to this type of barrel in their shotgun slug guns. I have one. The gain in accuracy and range over the conventionally-rifled barrels is remarkable.

.


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## wyogoob

wyogoob said:


> Talking about the crazy configuration of the bore and shooting at 1,000 yards, all 100 years ago!!
> 
> 
> 
> From the Newton Arms Company _Modern High Power Rifles and Ammunition_ manufacturers and dealers book.
> 
> .


*Segmented parabolic:*

Looking through the 24"-long barrel from breech to muzzle the hole is perfectly round. The bullet travels through a perfectly round hole.

Slice the barrel in two and it is parabolic, oval, like in the sketch above. In the sketch the ovality is at 9:00 and 3:00. Slice the barrel again 5" away from the first cut and the centerline of the ovality is different, it might be centered at 12:00 and 6:00. So the ovality (parabolic) rolls around 360° in one revolution of the rifling (segmented). Its all about minimizing resistance without loss in accuracy.

Then there's Newton segmented polygonal barrels, slightly different than the parabolics and I would be the first to admit I don't understand how those work. An explanation can be found using the link provided by DallanC in post #12: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polygonal_rifling

Think about the tool it takes to cut, or hammer-forge, the barrel.....1913. The guy was a mechanical genius.

.


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## wyogoob

3 1/2" groups at 500 yards!!!

Taken from the Newton Arms Company _Modern High Power Rifles and Ammunition_ manufacturers and dealers book:



.


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## wyogoob

My old Newton is not drilled n tapped for a scope. How cool is that?


The rear ramp flips down so you can use the peep sight that's attached to the end of the bolt by a very ingenuous spring-loaded swivel that locks in place when flipped up in the shooting position:




The rear sight leaf is square with a sighting notch cut on each side of the square. The smallest notch would be for taking "a fine bead" (the top of the bead just showing in the notch) for target shooting especially long range shooting.

The biggest notch, and corresponding "normal-sized" front bead, is for field use, normal hunting. With my eyesight it's the only option for me. I had to paint the diamond on the leaf white so I had something with some definition to put the front bead on. There's different sizes of "U" notches and "V" notches on the leaf:




My eyesight is a mess and the peep sight is pretty fuzzy so I'm using the ramp sight.

100 year-old technology, cool stuff.


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## LostLouisianian

If I didn't know any better I would think this would be a great Sheep gun...but that's just me;-)


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## LostLouisianian

wyogoob said:


> In a way, yes.
> 
> Chas Newton says:
> _".........In fact it is a two-groove rifling with the corners smoothed down. The advantages of this form of rifling are in its offering of less resistance to the bullet; greater accuracy; less strain on the bullet jacket and less likelihood of splitting; greater durability,.........The inside of the barrel being as smooth as that of a shotgun, it cleans as easily as a shotgun."_
> 
> Speaking of shotguns, Remington has gone to this type of barrel in their shotgun slug guns. I have one. The gain in accuracy and range over the conventionally-rifled barrels is remarkable.
> 
> .


Are all their new slug barrels this config? Been wanting to get a slug barrel for my 1100 and my Wingmaster too


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## wyogoob

*lands and grooves, no rifling*



LostLouisianian said:


> Are all their new slug barrels this config? Been wanting to get a slug barrel for my 1100 and my Wingmaster too


As far as I can tell the Parabolic Ultragon barrel comes on the 870 Super Slugger, the Sureshot, and the SPS. It also on the NEF and H&R shotguns now that Remington bought H&R. I don't know about the Model 1100. I give up trying to move around on the Remington website. good grief

This is what H&R and Remington are saying about the Parabolic Ultragon barrel:
_..................................The use of Ultragon™ Rifling further enhances the accuracy potential of the Pardner Pump Cantilever Slug Gun. Ultragon is a proprietary rifling design comprised of six lands and grooves without sharp edges like traditional rifling. This design imparts bullet spin without leaving sharp impressions on the sabot jacket or foster-style lead slug. The result is a better gas seal and less loss of pressure, which equals higher velocity and better accuracy.

_Kinda what Charles Newton said in 1914 except the Newton parabolic barrels only have 2 grooves._
_


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## 35whelen

newton do the .35 Newton too? parent case for .375 ruger?


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## wyogoob

*Newton did the 250 Savage, 25-06, the 22, 30, 33, 35 & 40 Newtons*



35whelen said:


> newton do the .35 Newton too? parent case for .375 ruger?


Yes, Charles Newton did the 35 Newton, the 22, 33 and 40 Newton and the 250 Savage among others.

The .22 Newton used a 90 grain bullet.

Newton took a 30-06 case and put a .25 caliber bullet in it back in 1912. He called it the "25 Newton Special" We call it the "25-06", introduced to the public in 1969. :?


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## wyogoob

*Bang the Gong*

I took the 100 year-old 256 Newton on the Bighorn Sheep hunt. A horse and I went "Western" and the gun got crushed cracking the stock severely. I kept the relic in a gun sock and in the scabbard up until the guide and I wrapped electrical tape around the broken stock. He wasn't very happy that I was carrying a rifle without a scope and "recommended" that I switch to my (scoped) back-up rifle.

The rifle has come a long way since I first tried out these starting loads:




to these that have 5 grains more powder than those original start loads and push a 130 grain 6.5 bullet at 3,100 fps with no signs of over-pressure:


I have reloaded and shot over 300 rounds thru the 100 yr old 256 Newton. It's been quite a ride. The rifle is a pleasure to shoot and a reliable hunting rifle up to 250 yards if I do my part. :smile:

I have to admit for awhile I was a little scared to shoot the thing and during the early "trouble-shooting stage" I didn't get my head behind the bolt and when I finally did, I'm sure I closed my eyes when I pulled the trigger. :smile:

The best I can tell the barrel was fouled about from 6" to 9" from the chamber. After hours and hours of cleaning the lead and copper out the gun shoots fine. With 125 grain to 130 grain projectiles this old 256 Newton will rival numbers that the 6.5-284 puts out and with less powder.

I can't thank everyone enough that helped out, offered advice, with what at first looked like an expensive piece of junk.

55 yards, bang flop:


188 yards, bang flop:


210 yards angling away from me with a 30 mph crosswind:


260 yards, bang flop:


Upcoming 256 Newton projects:
> Get the rear peep sight and the rear leaf sight adjusted to shoot the same point of impact.
> Build a 140 grain hunting bullet for the 2017 elk hunt.
> "Bang the gong" at 600 yards with 140 grain 256 Newton reloads.

Stay tuned. 

.


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## Loke

And the youngsters today need the latest and greatest 6.5 Creedmore to kill anything. 
Had an idiot in the store today looking for a bigger gun than a 30-06 for elk hunting. Like a 308.


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## DallanC

Loke said:


> And the youngsters today need the latest and greatest 6.5 Creedmore to kill anything.
> Had an idiot in the store today looking for a bigger gun than a 30-06 for elk hunting. Like a 308.


LMAO... Did you try and sell it to him in a AR10? Thats what all the cool kids use now I guess.

-DallanC


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## Loke

Nope. He was looking for something a little less spendy. Like the Mossberg Patriot we have on our Black Friday sale for $245. If he was REALLY COOL he would have gotten a 6.5 Creedmore. Way better elk cartridge than an old fashioned '06. It says so on the Internet.


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## wyogoob

*I got another one*

Picked up another First Model 256 Newton rifle, serial #307.






This one has a tighter chamber than the other 256 Newton, serial #3487. The neck-sized cartridges for the other Newton won't chamber in #307.

Head space is fine. What little copper that was in the tube has been removed. 


The stock is original and has a few dings in it but the checkering points are crisp, not worn.




Sharp checkering and period sling swivels:


The front sight was not an original and it was way too short. It has been replaced with a period Marbles sight of the correct height:


Interesting side bar stories: I bought the rifle on GunBroker. The description said the bore of the barrel was "poor". The seller didn't know that Newtons didn't have square-cut rifling so to him it looked bad.

The wood is darker than most Newtons I've seen so I figure it had been stripped and then stained a little on the dark side. When I took the gun out of the box at the gun store I was taken back by how nicely figured and how dark the 100-year old walnut stock was. After oohing and awwing and bragging on the merits of Newton barrel design and the .256 Newton cartridge (kinda like a 6.5-06) I noticed the rifle was a *.30 Newton!!!! The guy sent me the wrong rifle! *Looking at the grain pattern of the stock on #307 I would say the blank on #307 came off the same tree as that .30 Newton. I wish I would have taken a picture of the .30 Newton's stock.

I'm working on some loads for the new 256 Newton. So far it will easily do 3000 fps with 130 grain bullets; 3100 with 125 grain partitions are looking good too. IMR 4350 seems to be the most consistant. Now for the accuracy part.,

It has two rear leaf sights. One is static and I hope to zero it at around 225 yds or about 1 1/2" high at 100 yds. The other sight, the front leaf flip-up sight, is made for longer shots and I will probably set it between 300 and 325 yds....will see.

.


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## wyogoob

*Newton invented his own projectiles*

In 1913 Newton developed new calibers, new barrel designs, new rifle bolt and receivers that pushed 130 and 140 grain bullets over 3100 fps. It was amazing but troublesome. The lead alloy and cupronickel bullet jackets of the day didn't hold up to the heat generated by the bullet speed, it's rate of spin and the new nitrocellulose gun powders.

Newtons new projectiles had thick copper jackets and the lead core was insulated with a thin layer of paper, To help secure the jacket to the core a cannelure was added near the tip of the bullet in addition to the cannelure at the end of the case mouth.

Newton manufactured his own ammo at first. 




Later many of Newton's hunting calibers like the 30 Newton, the 35 Newton and the 40 Newton, just didn't sell and they were dropped. The 256 Newton however was popular enough that Winchester make ammo for it up until around 1939. I have some of the Winchester 256 Newton ammo; have even shot some of them.


Note the two loaded rounds in the picture below. The one to the left is an 80-year old Winchester Western and the one on the right is one of my reloads. The black mark is the end of the .264 diameter on the bullet. The Newton bullet is slowly tapered out to a light cannelure and then the ogive. The Sierra reload is a straight cylinder for quite a ways before the ogive. 


The old ammo shoots fine. The old bullets chronoed up over 2950 fps, about where my reloads shoot the best. The primer is flattened pretty good on that old cartridge; they're a little hot out of the box and the headspace on the old rifle has opened up a little: 


Man, those factory 129 grain 6.5 bullets are stuck way out there!


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## Azar

Very cool!


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## DallanC

wyogoob said:


> Man, those 129 grain 6.5 bullets are stuck way out there!


Closer to the target so you dont have to get as close as you would with a 270. 

-DallanC


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## Longgun

Very cool piece of firearms history you have there Goob, thanks for sharing the info with the rest of us.


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## wyogoob

100 yrs ago I don't think they had the technology to bond a copper jacket to the lead core of a bullet. So to keep the jacket on the lead core and control expansion bullet manufacturers added a cannelure, or two, to the front part of the bullet:


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## wyogoob

Does your Newton have a taped-up busted stock and no sling swivel studs? I know the feeling. Get ya one of these beautifully hand-crafted leather stock cuffs and sling from Circle M Brand in Plain City Utah:


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## wyogoob

The amber morning light is peaking through my kitchen window and I'm having coffee with my 3 girls:


Life is good.

.


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## wyogoob

Four 256 Newtons, the "girls"








One has an old Lyman 3X Stag scope. The scope is really cool, in excellent shape:








The mounts are "shoot thru" for those who aren't particularly fond of scopes:


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## wyogoob

bump


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## CPAjeff

After your suggestion on another thread, I found this little gem -

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/852944231


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## wyogoob

The original 6.5.

Remarkable, 3100 fps with a 123 grain, 264 caliber bullet in 1914. Think of what this gun can do with today's powders.

In 1916 you could even get factory 140 grain ammo. They stuck out pretty far compared to ammo of the day.


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## DallanC

And how much freebore from the end of that bullet to the lands? a few more inches? Was Papa Weatherby a Newton fan?

-DallanC


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## wyogoob

DallanC said:


> And how much freebore from the end of that bullet to the lands? a few more inches? Was Papa Weatherby a Newton fan?
> 
> -DallanC


No, not at all. Most Newtons had segmented polygonal (oval bore) barrels and the corners on the lands were rounded off. Instead of grooves and lands the have hips n valleys. See discussions #9 thru #23 in this thread. The bore is oval by around 0.005" each way....so mine is 0.264" x 0.274". I'm assuming the ovality goes all the way down to the chamber.


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## DallanC

I remembered... just trying to make a joke of sorts. This one fell flat...

-DallanC


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## wyogoob

DallanC said:


> I remembered... just trying to make a joke of sorts. This one fell flat...
> 
> -DallanC


Ha good question though.
One of my Newtons has conventional, Springfield, rifling.
I have factory 129 gr and 140 gr ammo that I reload off of...never pushed any bullets out any further than factory. The 140s barely fit in the magazine.


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