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I didn't say Donaldson invented 250-3000. I said he suggested a 30-06 sized rim to solve the problem SAVAGE was having with it. I said Mr. Pierce [ the ballistic engineer] at Savage invented it.

Newton was a shameless self-promoter and never missed an opportunity to pat himself on the back and blow his own horn. Even when he didn't have a horn to blow.
If you look at the cartridges Newton designed, one could argue that he DID have a horn to blow. Look at the specifics of the 30 and 35 Newton, Dan. You'll find that, with today's powders, they are quite possibly the best cartridges available in either caliber. They are rimless, beltless magnum cases that are without flaw in their design. He applied modern case geometry of minimal taper and sharper shoulders, while eliminating the minor challenges associated with belted cases.

With hindsight being 20/20, he was decades ahead of his time, in terms of rifle cartridges. If his estate was not so obtuse in maintaining their proprietary nature, a great many more hunters and shooters would have rifles chambered in Newton cartridges. All I can surmise is that you haven't studied his work.
 
256 Newton was no slouch...what's new?

The 256 was no slouch. Compare that old Speer from Jack or Ken Water's data to CM and 260. Yes, a larger cartridge. The 256 was there in 1914.

How many features of the original Newton rifle were unique and still considered modern? Does not the new generation of Ruger magnums have the Newton size head? Wonder if the current batch of beltless magnums have a debt to Mr. Newton Esq.

No authority on the subject. This is absolutely the very first time I've heard Charles Newton accused of being a shameless self promoter. It's suggested here the Harvey Donaldson may have been the self-promoter. This naysaying Newton is baseless non-sense.

Jack: Yes he was a lawyer. In later years he was a technical witness in law suits.
 
I've seen some of his testimony. In fact, it's referenced in some very early rulings about witness qualifications. He gave chemical testimony without being a chemist but lots of experience.

The current crop of beltless magnums undoubtedly came from Dakota. The .404 Jeffery case was the early parent of the 33, 35 and 40 Newton cartridges as well.

Here's a great article with lots of pictures of the Newton rifles---
Newton Rifle in .256 Newton - Revivaler

AND, again is Speer #1 from 1954--
 

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Non-Belted Magnums

Right, I had spoken of only the Ruger Magnums. I ran into one reference where a shooter was to make up brass for his 35 Newton from 375 Ruger brass. Was there a cartridge the preceded the Newton with that head size? Was not the Newton head size smaller than the 404?

I wonder how much influence the original innovative Newton rifle had on early bolt actions in the US. Looks like you had Savage and Winchester making bolt action rifles in the 1920's Sure enough, all of them took much from the German style.
 
The Ruger cartridges, Ultras and Win Shorts are .010 smaller than the original 404 Jeffery and Dakotas in the base.

Newton rifles were copies of Mausers in that NO expense was spared to make the best possible. The multiple locking lugs and alignment rails and double square bridge configuration with extended tang mast have been terribly expensive to manufacture. They sold for $78 in 1916. A Winchester 1894 was $18.

Bill Ruger and Len Brownell incorporated the Newton front tang 'draw screw' and integral scope mounts but I know of no other uses of Newton ideas.
 
The Revivaler article was nice too. Thanks Jack. I think I will get the .35 Newton with the fancy walnut and all the other extras. Only $111.00 if my addition is right. You can't go wrong.
 
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Only $111.00 if my addition is right.
Adjusted for inflation that's only $2300 in today's money. The one for sale is $6750. And I have a serious craving to look at that gun!
 
Charles Newton...one busy guy!

,404 Jeffery (10.75x73) was introduced in 1909. The parent cartridge for the 404 was reported to be the 10.75x68. The 300 Newton in 1913. Looks like you can made make a usable 300 Newton case from the 375 RCM. Could this be yet another example of parallel development. It's possible to see how Newton, a talented cartridge designer, was aware of the German cartridges-10.75x68. He had his own spin on design with smaller head size. It would be that Newton was developing the 300 Newton as Jeffery was coming up with the 404. Remember, all this was going along as the 250-3000 was in the works. Somebody was working double shifts. Ran into a list of Newtons patents that included; set triggers, bullets, a gun powder, and a loading tool in this same time frame. Harvey Donaldson did what during this same time?:eek:
 
The brand new 'belted magnum' case came out in 1912 by Hollands who was looking for a compromise between rimless and rimmed so bolt actions and double rifle could share the same ammo.

Westley Richards had managed to adapt a re-bated rim in the .425 WR (Small head to fit a bolt face but big body so there's enough shoulder to headspace) by seriously complicating the M-98 feed mechanism but it was terribly expensive and added a handful of parts to the guns.

Bolt actions are limited by the size of the bolt face--
It was found that .35 caliber is about as big as you can go with a .500 case head diameter without running into headspace problems as had James Howe with the first Whelens. The belt solved all the problems but created rough feeding which is still a feature of them today, hence the gravitation back to fat, rimless cases that slide over each other better.

Full circle, but many try to go back and 'make more better' an old idea but it's mostly wasted effort. It HAS been done before but seldom do failures get written up in magazines so the same mistakes are made over and over. ;)
It is the way of the world. Not long ago, a guy asked me if he could neck his Whelen down to 270 to increase velocity. We forget sometimes there are beginners without foundations.
 
The 256 was no slouch. Compare that old Speer from Jack or Ken Water's data to CM and 260. Yes, a larger cartridge. The 256 was there in 1914.

How many features of the original Newton rifle were unique and still considered modern? Does not the new generation of Ruger magnums have the Newton size head? Wonder if the current batch of beltless magnums have a debt to Mr. Newton Esq.

No authority on the subject. This is absolutely the very first time I've heard Charles Newton accused of being a shameless self promoter. It's suggested here the Harvey Donaldson may have been the self-promoter. This naysaying Newton is baseless non-sense.

Jack: Yes he was a lawyer. In later years he was a technical witness in law suits.
In 1990, while perusing an issue of Shotgun News, I came across an add for a used stainless Shilen Select Match barrel chambered in 256 Newton and threaded for a Ruger No. 1 for $80. It came with about 55 rounds of primed brass and a finish chambering reamer with T- handle, but no reloading dies. I had a No. 1 in 270 Win., so I had the barrel re-cambered to 6.5 - 06, 'cause I didn't want to by custom dies.
The real story here is that most of the brass had been reformed from 280 Rem. brass, but three of the cases were original Western brass with the 256 Newton head stamp, something of an accidental find which I have hung onto. In hindsight, I kind of wish I had kept the 256 chamber just for the "cool factor". The 6.5 - 06 does shoot nice, though. In the photos, the case on the left is the 6.5 - 06 for comparison.
 

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I don't know who the father of the 250 3000 was but whoever it was made a **** of a great cartridge. I have an improved version on a Brno 21 action with a custom stock that looks like the Remington in the article. I have shot mature whitetail and mule deer bucks without a hiccup and one whitetail doe at over 350 yards. I have yet to have anything get away. To me it is one of the perfect cartridges and if you have never tried one, you really should.
 

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I don't know who the father of the 250 3000 was but whoever it was made a **** of a great cartridge. I have an improved version on a Brno 21 action with a custom stock that looks like the Remington in the article. I have shot mature whitetail and mule deer bucks without a hiccup and one whitetail doe at over 350 yards. I have yet to have anything get away. To me it is one of the perfect cartridges and if you have never tried one, you really should.
Now I have to replace my keyboard...got drool all over it! :D
 
All I know is I have my fathers 1933 Model 99 and he hunted with it for as long as I can remember. My brother and I hunted from horse back and when we heard that thing go off we headed towards my dad because it had a distinctive sound and we knew he had shot that 250. We would look at each other and say, "that was dad, gotta go".
 
The 250-3000

Savage was so prowd of a bullet that traveled 3000fps that they marketed it on that basis, over the recomended 100gr the designers, included newton, recomended. The 300 Savage was to compete with 30-06 ballistics in a short action Savage action, which it did well in those days where 30-06 150gr slugs had MV of 2700+ fps velocities. These are two nice old rounds that deserve to be remembered..... DrBill
 
256 Newton

My project right now is a 256 N. on a WW2 98Mauser action. It's not classic but a nice rifle. My suggestion to anybody in this twenty-four hours is to check on the cost of dies. Looks like there is enough variation between dies and reamers to cause problems. Custom dies have become pricey. Until I get it figured out a 6.5 barrel neck sizer from a set of 310 dies is working very well, The 256 is very good fit in a military 98 action. The barrel is a 1/8 Bartlein #3.
 
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250-Savage

My wife was hunting with a 22-250 and was having trouble making clean kills with a 70gr bullet. I did some research and there was perfect answer. The 250 Savage. Now I have to find a light bolt gun but since no one was making guns in that caliber. I was thinking re-barrel. The gunsmith said why re-barrel when she could carry this. Reaching behind him he pulled a Ruger ultra light carbine from the shelf. It was such a great solution I ended up buying one for myself. The perfect gun for hunting in the woods. Too bad they don't make it anymore.
 
My project right now is a 256 N. on a WW2 98Mauser action. It's not classic but a nice rifle. My suggestion to anybody in this twenty-four hours is to check on the cost of dies. Looks like there is enough variation between dies and reamers to cause problems. Custom dies have become pricey. Until I get it figured out a 6.5 barrel neck sizer from a set of 310 dies is working very well, The 256 is very good fit in a military 98 action. The barrel is a 1/8 Bartlein #3.
Not sure what you consider "custom" or "pricey", but CH4D has 2 dies sets for $96.10 (Group E).

This from their site: Environment Test

256 Newton
DiesShell HolderCase Holder
2 Die Set: $96.10
FL Sizer: $69.66
Neck Sizer: $69.66
Expander: $33.63
Seater: $56.45
Form (each): $56.45
File Trim: $56.45
Dillon Trim: $69.66
Taper Crimp: $56.45
Reamer Die: $127.33icon
Our dies are precision machined from high quality steel, heat-hardened to 59 Rockwell C to a depth of .030" for maximum durability, hand polished for smooth function, and ultrasonically cleaned and coated in a proprietary rust preventative solution.

7/8" die body diameter.
2 die set includes full length sizer and seater.
Designed for a .264 bullet. The die set includes a .262 expander ball. You can specify a custom expander diameter during ordering.
 
The .300 SAVAGE was first chambered in SAVAGE'S first Bolt-Action Rifle the model 1920 or 20, in 1921. I remember my Grandfather's. Savage wanted a cartridge to duplicate .30-06 ballistics and still fit in the Model 99. He had a model 99 in .250-3000 when he went off to THE GREAT WAR. He got his .300 Savage after he came home from That WAR. They were trying to garner their share of the market of returning Veterans that had been "exposed" to BOLT-ACTION RIFLES and POWERFUL SMOKELESS ROUNDS that would out perform the .30-30 & .30-40.
 
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