256 Winchester barrel

[tward]

I picked up a 10" 256 Winchester barrel for my Contender. Got some dies and had my first adventures in case forming! Not so good at first, about 20% loss, then I annealed the rest of the cases used a good coating of Lee resizing lube and went very, very slow. Result, case loses down below 5%. Any load suggestions out there? Thanks, Tim
[smilie=s:

[No_1]

I have had one for some years now that I received with dies and brass as part of a package deal. Figure I will get around to it one day so I will watch this thread with interest.

[Artful]

I never had much luck with cast - with little 60 grain speer j-word pills it was an accurate round but the flash with full house of 2400 and 296 was eye openning.

this might interest ya.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?15569-256-Winchester-Magnum

[rbuck351]

Run you 357 cases through a die like a 30 mauser, 7.62x25 or 30 Luger before runninig them through your 256W dies and your case loss will go way down. I don't bother with annealing. Case loss was minimum, only loosing 1 or 2 out of 100. Good accuracy seems to be tough with this round using cast. There are probably others that have had better luck than I. I have only had one boolit to try (lyman 65gr gc) So far 1.5"-2" groups at 50Yds is about as good as I have done. The only J bullet that I have had luck with is the cheapo Rem 86gr FN. I haven't tried any of the 60gr j words yet and I have a new NOE 85gr? mold I just got so sooner or later I hope to get some usable accuracy. Mine is a 14" heavy barrel TC.

[Nobade]

The several I have played with worked really well with the 75gr. Speer spitzer, and awful with all cast. I know more now than I did then, and would like to revisit it. I believe a proper throat cut into the barrel would allow it to work well with cast, since as they come there is only an abrupt bevel into the rifling. Tears up cast boolits just when they need the most help.

-Nobade

[FrankG]

I had one several years ago on a Contender . I sent a throat slug to Veral and he cut a 80 gr mold for me . Worked real good for smackin chucks !
I used new Win brass and ran them through a 308 Win die I chopped off for a step before running through the 256 die .

[rbuck351]

I'm going to try to post some pictures of some nickel 357 cases that I made for the 256Win. I started by running them through the 30 Mauser die first with a thin film of Hornady Unique case lube. I set the die so the shoulder would be just a little long. I ran ten through and they all looked good. I then changed to the 256 die without relubing and ran them through. Now with luck and my very poor computer skills here are the results.6988169880 This is a mix of Rem Win Fed and PMC cases.

[Nobade]

That is such a sexy looking little case, it really should work better than it does. Some day I want to get a custom reamer made set up for boolits and see what it'll really do. Wish I could find a cheap Martini Cadet to build up, that would be one slick little coyote rifle.

-Nobade

[rbertalotto]

I have one of those barrels that I never shot! And I have headstamped brass AND factory loaded ammo that I picked up years ago. A buddy has the Marlin "Levermatic" and it is a very accurate rifle.

I'm going to have to take it out one of these days and shoot it..............Two years till I retire then I'm going to take every gun I own and shot them!

[tward]

Just some info and photos of my 256 Winchester case forming. Had a mixed bag of once fired brass. Annealed the cases, lubed them with Lee case lube ( the best kind, the one I have!) and after taking the decapper expander rod out of the Hornady dimension FL sizer die I very, very slowly ran the case into the die. After forming the cases I ran them back through the FL die with the decapper in place. I then trimmed the cases to 1.271, chamfered the case then wet tumbled with SS pins, dawn and lemmishine for 3 hours and done. Does not seen to matter weather the cases are brass or nickel plated.7013470135

[Mk42gunner]

If you don't have anything to use as an intermediate die; and since you are running them in the sizing die twice anyway, try using the seating die for the first trip. This has worked for me in making .25-20 WCF out of .32-20 WCF.

Robert

[tward]

Thanks for the tip Robert, but the seating die on the Hornady Dimension use a floating seating chamber, so no can do. Tim

[Mk42gunner]

Tim,

I totally missed the fact you are using Hornady's New Dimension dies, sorry.

Another idea is to find an old set of dies at a gun show or bargain bin at the local gun emporium, and cut one of them down until you have a custom intermediate die. Anything from a short 7mm to .30 cal or 8mm should work. I cut down a really cheap set of 243 dies to neck down .270 WSM brass for a wildcat 6mmx300 WSM one time before ordiring special made dies. It worked, even though I only had about two threads left on the die.

Robert

[tward]

Good plan! I'll keep my eyes open for cheap used dies, thanks, Tim

[walkswithsticks]

Since molds are scarce and I am 5 miles from Meister, I have been using their 85 gr RNFP over 3.9 gr Unique with good results. Shooting a 10" Contender barrel with factory sights
Not deadly on the bowling pin at 200 yd, but I keep it worried.
Younger eyes or optics would help.

I shoot it and 32 /20 in 10" Contender at pins at 200 yd and do respectable.