.357 to .256

[cwlongshot]

After ruining 6 cases that split at the neck(out of 31)- I followed CW’s advice and annealed the rest of the batch.
Things are better now. The 6 that split before were 5 Remington and 1 Starline.
I’ve done a few of each now and haven’t split any- no matter the head stamp. Here’s the progression from .357 to a loaded .256 Winmag.

Thanks CW!


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Awesome man!! ❤️*��❤️*��

[Alchemist]

Just bought a 256 Contender barrel and have a few questions for you guys. If I got this right, y’all are sizing directly from 357 to 256 in one step? I bought all the Redding forming dies and go slowly with Imperial wax with complete success. I haven’t fired any yet, but plan to anneal them before loading.

How many cases do you ruin by skipping the gradual progression? How many loadings are y’all getting, and how often do you guys anneal?

BTW, I am using new Starline brass.

Thanks

[cwtebay]

I’m putting together another stub rifle like my 44-40 and .218 Bee Toppers.
I test fired three of them with Unique and 100 gr bullets and all is good.
I’ve wanted a 25-20 for years but the .256 makes more sense for the brass situation.


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I would definitely hook you up with a few hundred 25wcf brass if you want!

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[Texas by God]

I would definitely hook you up with a few hundred 25wcf brass if you want!

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Thanks for the offer, but keep them for yourself and others. They appear to be very rare nowadays- like .218 Bee brass- luckily I’m good there!
After annealing, I’ve only lost one piece out of 65 so far.
After firing, I’m just going to size the minimum that will still chamber easily.
And see how it goes from there.


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[shdwlkr]

Where have you read that the win 92 and .256 win mag is a bad combination please

[rockrat]

Hmm--how about a 256 win max? 357 max brass?

[Alchemist]

Hmm--how about a 256 win max? 357 max brass?

I’ve been thinking the same thing. MGM has it on their chambers list but I haven’t been able to find a cartridge drawing. And would it be possible to use the same dies to load it?

[Texas by God]

Hmm--how about a 256 win max? 357 max brass?

It might be similar ballisticly to the AR cartridge 25-45 Sharps- not quite 25-35 level one would think.


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[Alchemist]

[QUOTE=Texas by God;5680621]It might be similar ballisticly to the AR cartridge 25-45 Sharps- not quite 25-35 level one would think.

Another rabbit hole for me to go down.�� Way less steps to form cases, and cheaper parent cases to start with. Too bad my ideas never culminate in a million dollar invention- cause I could certainly spend the cash pretty quick!

[rescue_171]

Only bad thing about the 256 out of the contender is the twist rate in factory barrels is to slow for heavier bullets. They will keyhole.


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[ebb]

How about a 256MIN on a 38 special case?

[Jedman]

How about a 256MIN on a 38 special case?

Being there is some taper to the body of the 256 WM if you shortened a sizing die by the difference in length between a 357 and a 38 spl. the die would have to small of ID at the bottom to go over the solid head of the 38 brass.
If a guy really wanted to do a shortened die for 38 spl. brass you could ID grind the die at a new angle to accomplish that, I did it before with 2 wildcats I built .
Jedman

[405grain]

Jedman's right about having to make "custom" dies, but there's also another issue when creating a unique wildcat: you also have to have a custom chambering reamer made. This is where cost vs reward comes into play. Is there an advantage to this new cartridge that outweighs the cost and effort that goes into it's development? If the answer is no, or if there is already a factory or wildcat cartridge that does the same thing, then this becomes a money sink hole. It costs the same to program CNC tooling to make 1 part as it does to make 5000, so having these specialty one-off parts made is costly.

There are alternatives, and lots of guys on this forum are pretty creative. First, you could create your own wildcats by either using a combination of dies, or modifying existing dies. The same goes with reamers & throaters. (In one of several examples - shortening a 35 Whelen die to make "35 Mauser") Then there's also the possibility of making your own reamers. There are some posts on a few gunsmithing forums regarding machining your own reamer, be it a conventional reamer or a "D" reamer. An internet search should turn up a couple of hits.

Three of the cartridges that I load for require reforming the brass from something else so I understand what folks are going through making up 256 mag. I think that this is a really neat cartridge. I've read that a rimless version can also be made from 222 or 223 brass. Texas by God; when you get a chance to shoot some targets post up the results. We'd like to see how this shoots.

[Texas by God]

I only had 6 rounds left of my fire forming loads, so I shot 3 on paper at 40 yards and 3 on steel at 100 yards.
I used a 75 gr Sierra hp over IMR 4198 for these.
I’m liking it so far, but that shotgun trigger pull is aggravating….

The upper holes in steel were from my 44-40 Topper.


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[cwtebay]

https://youtu.be/4T_8kge23wQ?si=-TlMLmtqRBQqCu_G

Not a simple task, but doable!!!
I did this to my wife's rifle several years ago and never regretted it.
(Other than she touched one off appropriately 30 feet high the first time she fired it)

[Texas by God]

Thanks for the tip.
GBO has trigger job info as well.
I just don’t like dismantling and remantling (new word!) Toppers….


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[cwtebay]

Thanks for the tip.
GBO has trigger job info as well.
I just don’t like dismantling and remantling (new word!) Toppers….


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I'll be honest - it was terrible. Had it been anyone's but hers, I would have bailed on it.

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[Texas by God]

That trigger got me twice here. It has a felt tiny click then keeep squeezing bang.
I found those W-W 25-20 bullets at a gun show so I’m using them!


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[midnight]

I had heard that forming 256 Win mag from 357 cases ended up with cases a little bit short so I used 360 Dan Wesson cases. They come out slightly long and can be trimmed to exact length. I also used a 30 Mauser die as a first step and final forming in the 256 Win die. I only lost one case where the neck had a small fold in the neck. As a result I recommend using 360 Dan Wesson brass and a 30 Mauser die as a first step. I have also been told the Wesson brass is of stronger construction.

Bob

[Jedman]

I form my 256 on used 357 brass and some are as long as 1.310 and the case is only supposed to be 1.280. My chamber has no problem chambering the 1.310” long but I trim mine to 1.295 as that’s close to the average of all of the brass I have reformed.
Jedman