The Best High-Velocity Cartridges You’ve Never Heard Of

To not be confused with Isaac Newton, Charles Newton was one other inventor and engineer who some have referred to as the “father of high-velocity rifle cartridges.” Newton designed a number of fashionable cartridges which are nonetheless commercially accessible (.250 Savage, .220 Swift, and .22 Savage), however he additionally pioneered his personal high-speed rounds that failed to attain industrial success. That, based on Frank C. Barnes in “Cartridges of the World,” wasn’t attributable to an absence of ballistic potential.

“Newton designed cartridges again round 1910 that, had trendy powders been accessible, would have equaled the efficiency of present-day high-velocity developments of comparable caliber and kind,” Barnes notes. “The Newton designs should be acknowledged as too superior for his or her day. If Charles Newton have been alive and his cartridges launched at this time, they’d be hailed as good and trendy in each respect.”

I’d wager most rifle hunters haven’t heard of Charles Newton or the cartridges he invented, and that’s a disgrace. Whereas direct strains of affect are exhausting to disentangle, his mind was working alongside the identical wavelengths as Twenty first-century cartridge designers. He will be the most influential wildcatter you’ve by no means heard of, and his innovations are among the finest industrial failures in cartridge historical past.

Take, for instance, the .22 Newton. Newton had labored on the .22 Savage Hello-Energy for the Mannequin 99 lever-action rifle, however he didn’t imagine that cartridge had sufficient juice to take down a deer. So, he took a .30-06 Springfield case, shortened it about 0.25 inches, and necked it down to just accept a 0.228-inch-diameter bullet.

The end result was an ultra-fast .22-caliber cartridge that might launch a 90-grain bullet 3,100 feet-per-second or a 70-grain bullet 3,250 fps. For context, a .223 Rem. can solely obtain about 2,700 fps with a lighter 77-grain bullet, and whereas a .22-250 Rem. flies practically 3,700 fps, it should use a bullet practically half the burden (55 grains).

Very similar to at this time’s cartridge designers, Newton’s .22-caliber cartridge used heavy-for-caliber bullets loaded into a large case with a comparatively steep shoulder angle. In his guide “Wildcat Cartridges,” Fred Zeglin lists the shoulder angle as 21 levels, which isn’t as steep as, say, the 6.5 Creedmoor’s 30 levels however undoubtedly steeper than the .30-06’s 17.5 levels. Massive sport hunters tended to choose one other of Newton’s choices, the .256 Newton, however Barnes factors out that subsequent .22 wildcatters have been impressed by Newton’s design.

“Many later wildcatters have adopted Newton’s lead — Ackley, Clark, Huntington, and Carmichael come to thoughts with their variations of a .22 on this identical primary cartridge design,” he writes.

As with lots of Newton’s cartridges, the .22 Newton wasn’t chambered in any manufacturing rifles apart from those Newton produced at his personal rifle manufacturing facility. The .22 Newton was first provided in a Newton rifle in 1914 however wasn’t round very for much longer. No matter benefits the .22 Newton provided, they weren’t acknowledged by most people on the time.

Newton was main the heavy-for-caliber bandwagon earlier than it was cool, and we will say the identical about 6.5mm cartridges. The .256 Newton was launched by the Western Cartridge Co. in 1913, making it the primary American-designed, commercially accessible 6.5mm cartridge in historical past. After Western stopped producing it in 1938, it wasn’t till twenty years later that one other firm started providing a 6.5mm rifle cartridge (the .264 Win. Magazine.).

Just like the .22 Newton, the .256 Newton used a necked-down .30-06 case. Barnes information that it might hearth a 120-grain bullet 2,980 fps and a 140-grain bullet 2,890 fps. Against this, a 6.5 Creedmoor shoots a 120-grain capsule 2,900 fps and a 140-grain projectile 2,700 fps, relying on the actual loading.

Newton’s gross sales pitch for the .256 ought to sound acquainted to anybody who’s investigated the Creed and different trendy cartridges. Based on Zeglin, Newton claimed that the 256 had 23% extra vitality at 300 yards than the 30-06. Because the Springfield was thought-about essentially the most highly effective American cartridge for large sport, “Newton enthusiastically touted his 256 as ‘satisfactory for the most important of North American Massive Recreation.’”

Newton’s cartridge in all probability couldn’t match the Creedmoor’s accuracy, and its long-action case clearly didn’t use powder as effectively because the short-action Creedmoor. However keep in mind, Newton wasn’t working with trendy powders. Barnes factors out that with at this time’s slow-burning powders, the .256 Newton’s efficiency will be improved over manufacturing facility ballistics. Plus, its use of the .30-06 case permits handloaders to create their very own instances out of the available Springfield, making the Newton a sort of lovechild between old-timers and 6.5mm fanboys.

Newton’s most enduring creation is probably going the .30 Newton. You may nonetheless discover rifles chambered on this caliber on web sites like GunBroker, and the cartridge conjures up the occasional suppose piece just like the one you’re at present having fun with.

Newton designed the cartridge for then-well-known German gun maker Fred Adloph, which resulted within the unlucky appellation, the “Adolph Specific” (this was in 1913, keep in mind). A number of years later, based on Barnes, the Western Cartridge Co. started producing manufacturing facility masses, and Newton matched these with rifles from his personal manufacturing facility.

Ballistically, the .30 Newton is remarkably just like the .300 Win. Magazine. It used bullets within the 150- to 200-grain vary. It might launch the lighter bullets about 3,100 fps, and the heavier bullets left the barrel nearer to 2,700 fps. Just like the .300 Win. Magazine., the candy spot was 180-grain bullets, which flew between 2,800 and a pair of,900 fps on the muzzle.

The .300 Win. Magazine. has been some of the fashionable cartridges ever made because it was launched in 1963. However for no matter purpose, the looking public and the industrial firearm business at massive weren’t prepared for the .30 Newton in 1913. In a prescient transfer, Newton determined to alter the identify of the cartridge to the “.30 Newton,” nevertheless it didn’t assist the underside line. He stopped making rifles in .30 Newton in 1920, and the Western Cartridge Co. stopped producing the cartridge in 1938. For handloaders and wildcatters, brass will be shaped from RWS 8x68mm instances, however these are harder to return by than the .30-06 instances utilized by the .22 and .256 Newton.

These aren’t the one cartridges Newton developed, however they’re among the most forward-thinking. A .22 that makes use of heavy-for-caliber bullets, an American-made 6.5mm, and a 30-caliber magnum are all ideas which have turn out to be staples of the trendy firearm panorama. Perhaps we might have gotten right here with out Newton’s genius… however possibly not. It’s powerful to say, but when high-speed looking rounds have helped you place meat on the desk, you owe no less than a bit gratitude to the OG of velocity, Charles Newton.

If you wish to study extra about Newton and his cartridges, try Chapter 19 of Fred Zeglin’s guide, “Wildcat Cartridges.”