Charles Newton

Charles Newton (1868-1932) was an American lawyer and firearm enthusiast known for his experiments with cartridge design which led to the creation of the .22 Savage Hi-Power rifle cartridge which was adopted by the Savage Arms as a commercial firearm cartridge. This success was soon followed by the design of the .250-3000 Savage. Charles also experimented with wildcats based on the .30-06 Springfield case, most notably creating a forerunner of the .25-06 Remington. This cartridge was first introduced as the .25 Newton Special. There were probably no firearms produced in this caliber by Netwon. It soon evolved into the .256 Newton designed to use, at first, a 123-grain bullet followed by later upgrades to 129-grain and 140-grain bullets. Newton's premise was to use a large case for each caliber he developed in order for the larger powder charge to propel the bullet at high velocity resulting in effective terminal ballistics. Newton developed several calibers. The best known are the .22 Newton (90-grain bullet), .256 Newton, .30 Newton (180-grain bullet), .33 Newton (200-grain bullet), .35 Newton (250-grain bullet), and .40 Newton (300-grain bullet). From 1914 until the late 1920s, he entered into various endeavors to promote and sell rifles in his proprietary calibers. Newton cartridges The .256 Newton was a high-velocity, rimless centerfire cartridge introduced in 1913. It was based on the .30-06 Springfield military cartridge and developed in conjunction with the Western Cartridge Company. It was loaded with 123 gr (8 g) with a muzzle velocity of 3,103 ft/s (946 m/s), and 2,632 ft⋅lbf (3,569 J) of energy.