Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Newton cartridges...

Hi guys

I'm a big fan of Chas Newton and his cartridges. The man was a ballistic genious and way ahead of his time. His First Model Newtons are also very good rifles.

I have built a .30 Newton on a Ruger Hawkeye action. I'm still in the early stages of load development, but so far I get close to 3200 fps with 180 grs North Fork bullets and 71 grs Norma MRP.

I'm interested to hear if anyone else has any experience with the Newton cartridges, not only the .30 but the rest too.

I'm currently building a .40 Newton, it wil be interesting to see how it performs. 2400 fps with 400 grs bullets is what I hope for. Newton supposedly got 3000 fps with a 300 grs bullet...

Welcome to the forum Linge,

I admire the Newton cartridges and favor their design over the belted magnums that have shoulders.

Tell us more when you can.

Linge:

Super stuff re your Newton; indeed, I agree Newton was WAY ahead of his time, and he was the father of my beloved 25/06 per the 25 Newton.

And, someone who knows about/shoots Norma MRP (a great powder in my 25/06 with the lighter bullets). Carry on!!

I had a First Model .30 Newton. Sold it last summer. It was an early Model, #272, I believe. Neat gun, loved all the fun little features like the hidden front action screw, Pope Barrels, 6 lug bolt, all that stuff.
How do you form your brass? I used .338 Win Mag.

Yes, the First Model Newtons are very good rifles with some interesting features.

I use formed 8x68S cases, no belted cases in my .30 Newton.

I also have some original brass, both Western and Speer.

Linge,

Welcome to the Campfire!

I use MRP as well in my .256 Newton, well actually it is a 6.5-'06.

I would like to hear how you do with your .400...jim

Newtons patents:

1913: A powder and propellant for use in a firearm
1914: A bullet, or projectile, with a steel wedge or nail in the point
1916: Projectile or partitioned bullet (Look at the year...)
1916: Newton loading tool
1917: Double-set trigger for the Model 1916 rifle
1920: Projectile or partitioned bullet
1924: Double-set trigger for the Model 1924 rifle

Linge,

It's nice to see inerest in the Newton cartridges. I have an original model Newton rifle in .35 Newton. It is currently at my gunsmith's getting some minor work done. When I get it back, I intend to hunt with it. I will use .375 Ruger brass.

I also have a barrel for a 1903 Springfield in an original .256 Newton. I intend to build it much like the originals but with a 1903 Sprg action. (Newton at one time sold kits for gunsmiths to convert 1903's to .256 Newton. )

Edw

When I lived in WNY I had a friend that had a .256 Newton (to be honest that started my 6.5itis ) anyway he would hunt groundhogs with that thing an man o man it would knock the crap outta those groundhogs too.

I was really impressed with that cartridge (I was a young teenager at the time and was using a .223 and then converted to a .243 )

Grasshopper,

An original .35 Newton rifle is very rare, please post pictures of it when you get it back. Is it a First Model? The .35 Newton is a real powerhouse, it delivers more energy than the .375 H&H. It has been used in Africa with great success. Charles Cottar wrote that he once shoot a charging Rhino with a .35. The bullet went through the Rhino lenghtwise..

The .256 is another good one, basically a 6.5-06. A very good long range cartridge.

Some Newton cases:



.416, .40, .400 Niedner, .400 Gipson, .35 Newton, .33 Newton, .30 Newton, .280 Newton, .276 Newton, .256 Newton, .22 Newton.



.375 Gipson





9.3 Newton

My .30 Newton:

If Newton's heirs had been getting royalties on any of his patents they would be wealthy today.

What steps are needed to form cases from the 8x68 and will the 375 Ruger brass work for the larger Newtons?

Bet there isn't alot of left handed .30 Newtons out there.

Newton never made any patents on his cartridges, but the others are good ones.

Forming cases from the 8x68S is a lot of work. The Newton case is 64 mm long, so the 8x68S case needs to be shortened. The 8x68S cases also have very solid brass, so they are tough to form.

As for the .375 Ruger, it's easy to form. Ruger/Hornady has copied Newtons design for their "new" cases, just made them a bit longer and the neck shorter. They have actually made a poorer design. They will probably need some neck reaming when formed to .30 Newton.



.375 Gipson on the left, .375 Ruger on the right.

That is great information. Thank you for posting it up. I am looking at building a 35 Newton and this is really good intel.

I got my 30 Newton headstamped brass from Quality Cartridge. Kind of pricy (three bucks apiece)but decent looking brass.
It's my intent to build a rifle in each of the more common Newton calibers (the 256, the 30, and the 35).
What I really want to see is Remington introducing the classic 700 chambered for the newton cartridges. This might get us affordable brass as well as some modern rifles.
For my Newtons I'll be using a pre-war model 70 (30 Newton) a model 54 (256), and a model 30 Express (35). All actions for which the Newtons would be appropriate and models which should have been produced in these chamberings when they were made. GD

Don't forget two other cartridges that Chas. Newton cooked up- the Savage .22 High power and the .250-3000. He wasn't just about high velocity thumpers!

I have a couple of 256 Newtons, a 1st Model #3xx, and a Husqvarna 8000 that Ray Montgomery in Grand Junction, CO, put together for me going on 20 year now. It is my favorite long action 6.5mm/.264" bore cartridge, even though making cases is a PITA.

I also have 2 1st Model Newtons in 30 USG, 1 with open sights and 1 with a factory installed bolt peep sight.

The 1st Model Newtons were nice rifles and I don't understand why none of the major U.S. firearms manufacturers ever chambered their bolt action rifles for either the 256 or 30 Newton.

In my 25" Husqvarna, I get around a 150 fps gain over the 260 and 6.5x55 and about 100 fps less than the 6.5-06 when those rifles have 24" barrels.

Jeff

Linge is dead wrong on this. Newton's heirs still have the rights, which are probably copyrights on his "chambers". Hornady and Ruger gave the Newton proprietary chamber a wide berth, when they did their new 375 Ruger. Say "Rick Jamison" three times and click your heels together,-----.

I found that I could reform a 375 Ruger virgin brass case into my 10.6mm x 375 Ruger wildcat in one plunge. But I'd like to see photos of someone making a Newton case, by simply reforming a Ruger parent case, without crushing it, in the process.

My Ruger virgin brass cases are about .005" larger than a Western 35 Newton round, that I have in my collection. But if Linge is really the same 40 Newton from a couple of years back, it's not surprising that he still says this.

Herr Schuler got some of these Newton cases that were orphaned by WWI, and then made his own thick walled 8 x 68S Schuler from them. He also changed them enough so his ammo couldn't work in the older Newtons. The closest cartridge to the 35 Newton, is the belted 358 Norma Magnum.

Last but not least; if a 416 Ruger or Remington won't make 3000 fps, with a 300 gr. bullet, there's simply no way for a 40 Newton sub-magnum to do it. My wildcat and the slightly smaller Taylors will come close to 2400 fps, with a 400 grain soft point bullet, but a tungsten cored 400 gr. solid works better, as it gives more room for the powder.