Welcome to The Newton Rifle

Charles Newton was a lawyer who had an avid interest in firearms. Because he was a superior ballistician, experimenter, inventor, an advanced firearms designer and a promoter, he became a firearms importer and manufacturer between 1914 and 1930.  

   His goal was to have a large cartridge for caliber to attain high velocity (>3000 fps.), flat trajectory, and effective terminal ballistics. His experiments with ballistics and rifle design led to new calibers and rifles that were ahead of their time.  Major rifle manufacturers adopted some of Newton’s innovations such as the .22 Hi Power and .25-3000 for Savage, the 25-06, the 3 position safety, the floor plate latch used by Winchester, plunger type ejector, interrupted screw bolt locking, dual compartment bullets and copper jacketed bullets.

   Due to a number of setbacks which included World War I, Prohibition, money problems and difficulties in production, Newton was never consistently successful as a firearms manufacturer.  We are left today with a few examples of his work showing him to have been an innovative cartridge and firearms designer.

   During his lifetime, Newton was in charge of three companies which sold rifles; Newton Arms Co. Inc., Chas. Newton Rifle Corp. and the Buffalo Newton Rifle Co. Total production and importation of rifles of these companies was slightly over 5000 rifles. Rifles produced and imported by the companies controlled by Charles Newton can be categorized into four models.