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Hey Fellas:

I have a Ruger # 1 in .257 Colton and I've not been able to find a thing on this cartridge. All I find are .257 Roberts (which I also have) and .257 Weatherby. Any suggestions on where I might look for details on this cartridge?

Thanks much
 
I have a dozen very old reloading manuals, this cartridge is not in any of them.

There was probably more wildcatting with the "quarter bore" than perhaps any other bullet diameter. There are a ton of different variants out there. Do you have any info at all on the round, hopefully at least, the parent cartridge?

I'd suggest you buy some Cerrosafe and cast the chamber (or have it done) so you can get a true picture of chamber dimensions. That way you can determine what the parent cartridge was and what would need to be done to form brass. Then find data on several similar wildcat / factory loads that have approximately the same case dimensions and internal volume.

That way you could extrapolate a safe starting load and start load development from there. The No. 1 is a strong action, so starting low and working up cautiously should provide you a good load without any more risk than normal load development using cartridge specific data.

I hope this helps. Keep us posted I'm interested in what you may find about this round.
 
Last Edited:
Thank you DLS for digging into this. Based on my limited research, I sure agree with your statement on the quarter bore. I think your "reverse engineering" suggestions are sound, especially if I can't locate any specific information on this cartridge. I also wondered if Ruger may be of some value in this search but I'm not clear if this caliber started with them or was done by a custom shop. I suspect the latter. Possibly I could work backwards with the serial number. It is nicely stamped into the barrel but that could be done by many competent shops.
 
Some searching turned up this...

"A while back I acquired a beautiful custom rifle that had not been fired except to fire form some cases. It's a 7mm with CBM Mk I stamped on the barrel. I was told it was built in the late 70's by a gunsmith in Oregon by the name of Gene Colton (hence the Colton Belted Magnum "CBM" moniker). He apparently created a wildcat based on the 7MM Rem Mag cartridge. Besides the MK I he also designed the MK II which I was told is a longer case variant of the same caliber. The rifle has a 24 in. Shillen barrel, Winchester action, and this firearm was supposedly tested by Guns and Ammo Magazine and appeared in one of their issues."

https://forum.accurateshooter.com/threads/need-help-with-a-wildcat-cartridge.3831434/
 
Great find MT. Thank you. That story sure has a lot of parallels that seem to be more than mere coincidences. I'll read the article further. Thanks again for your help.
 
Well fellas, I hit the veritable jackpot since my post on the .257 Colton. I found the reloading dies for this and 2 other Colton rifles I have. Inside the dies for the .416 Colton Express, I found a 4" square booklet with a lot of the information I needed. Granted it would be helpful to have this booklet for all 3 rifles since this shows case measurements too. But, I can get what I need from this. Just in case any of you have or run across a Colton gun shop prepped rifle, this may help you as well. I'm not sure how many pages I can attach at a time but I guess I'll be finding out. I guess these will have to be clicked on to open them up.

GS

Pg. 1.jpg Pgs. 2 & 3.jpg Pgs. 4 & 5.jpg Pgs. 6 & 7.jpg
 
"MAG-NA-PORT recommended."
:D

RCBS dies.

Interesting stuff. Thanks for posting.

Kudos to Mr. Colton. Some people just get up and do stuff.

The gun world was a great place in the 60's.

ETA - post a pic of the gun when you have time.:cool:
 
I'm not sure but I believe Colton was his last name. His shop ran at least into the 80's given the .416 Colton Express that this booklet was for is hand-signed and dated 1984 along with hand-written notes on the fire-forming process. I also have the RCBS booklet that the Colton booklet references for reloading.

Attached is a picture of the .257 Colton in Ruger #1.

Ruger #1 .257 Colton Mag. #2 (2).jpg
 
Also attached here is the .416 Colton Express in Ruger #1 currently with unfinished stock (started life from Ruger as a .375 H&H) and a Remington 700 that started as a 7mm Mauser but is now a 7mm Colton Magnum.

Ruger #1 .375 H& H #2 (3).jpg Remington Mdl 700 7MM Mauser #2 (2).jpg
 
While I love the svelte lines of Ruger's #1 rifle, that big blocky fore grip on the .416 kinda looks cool too, if it was dressed up a bit.

In reality though, it probably would diminish the balance and shotgun like handling the for which the #1 is famous.
 
Gene Colton was one of my best friends back in the late 70's, and 80's. I was a custom pistolsmith, and every handgun he got in for repair he would hand it over to me to fix because he hated working on handguns!! Any rifles that came into my shop that I didn't want to tackle, I would turn them over to Gene. The coffee was always on, and gun conversation plentiful in Gene's shop!! He was good friends with Elmer Keith, and Roy Weatherby, and he told me some pretty fascinating stories about his association with those two!!
 
Elkaholic49: Thanks for letting us know your history with Gene and his business and for helping me and others with some of the details we were missing. He sure sounded like a well-connected fellow! I know since my brother had several rifles that Gene modified that he (my brother) really liked Gene and his workmanship.
 
Its always fun to read obscure gun history and the quality that went into them. The quarterbore is legendary and lives on.

Heres a link to another 257 Colton owner inquiring about modifying his scope mount.
 
Interesting. I can't see his profile to know where he's from.
Im not a member of that forum. Typically you have to join a forum to view members profiles or message them. If I had a very rare custom rifle I think it would be fun to at least say hi to another owner.

Another option, there is a Facebook group dedicated to quarterbore owners. They get into all the wildcats there and would love to hear about a 257 Colton.
Quarterbore Shooters
 
Agreed on viewing forum member profiles. The .257 Colton was my brother's rifle that was sold with most of his estate. However, I have my dad's .257 Roberts in a sporterized Mauser 98 so thanks for the help with both the 24hourcampfire site and the FB group. Those could be fun for sure.
 
Its always fun to read obscure gun history and the quality that went into them. The quarterbore is legendary and lives on.

Heres a link to another 257 Colton owner inquiring about modifying his scope mount.
True Confessions: that was me. (The giveaway shoulda been the "notable quote" sign off line.) The No.1 Colton has been to Montana now three times since I (driven by quarter-bore fever) acquired it from @GSample. Each trip, I've carried it for at least one day, and turned a Coyote inside-out, but no ungulates (yet).

The cartridge is as I presumed it would be: a "sensible" belted magnum, much like the .276 Ackley Magnum: avoiding gross overbore case capacity. In commercial cartridges, there are few "gaps" of performance within a given caliber, but a fair sized one exists between the .25-06 and the .257 Weatherby (the '06 when loaded very warm, falls just short of matching factory Weatherby velocities).

The Colton bridges that gap. Belt-a-phobes should take a pill: Simply headspacing on the shoulder makes the evil belt a non-issue, and the overall balance and weight and appearance of this fine rifle lead me to wonder why Ruger never offered a similarly-constructed/proportioned version.

Many thanks to @Elkaholic49 for insight regarding Mr. Colton himself, and I cannot thank @GSample enough for kindnesses such as this received.
 

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