The rifle is a Marlin Levermatic . Empty 256 brass is not common. PPU makes 22 Rem Jet and the price is reasonable. This seems to me to be a better option than sizing down 357 Mag brass as my attempts mostly are disappointing. Crushed casses,thick necks, short OAL. I would use a bullet puller, dispose of the powder and run I through a 256 sizer die. I have been reloading for a long time but never did anything like this. Any thoughts on this, what to look out for ? Ammo or rifle.

Grafs has 256 mag brass on hand, Probably easier in long run to just buy enough to last you.
Jamison Brass 256 Winchester Mag Unprimed Bag of 20 - Graf & Sons

My simplistic answer is that necking brass down to a smaller diameter works but the neck gets a little thicker. Necking brass up to a larger diameter is not as successful because necks get too thin and crack on the 2nd or 3rd firing.

I would buy new brass if it is available.

__________________
S&WHF 366

I had a 22 Ackley Jet on a Matini action. The first 50 brass I made
from 357s I ruined 46 of them. I used 256 dies in reduction
process. You have opposite problem. But you are better off. If
you are going to use 22Rem jet brass just load the brass with
about 4grs of Bullseye / fill the rest of case with corn meal and
fire in your Marlin. You may have to go with a little more powder
if 4grs doesn't completely fire form the case. Keep Muzzel pointed
up while doing this. One other tip, only use yellow brass, nickel
won't take as many loadings and isn't friendly to being worked.
When I made my casings reducing to 22 from 357 with just
256 in between was to much at one time and I added a couple
more steps in reduction and annealed the casings. You won't
have to do any of that.

Never made any .256 Win. brass, but I've reformed brass for a number of wildcat or obsolete cartridges. Thankfully, I have none now and don't miss them.

Though there are exceptions, to form brass right requires form dies. These usually aren't cheap. And then there is the possibility of having to turn case necks for which you will need additional equipment.

I don't anneal brass of any kind now, but for some reformed cases (.219 Winchester Zipper formed from other brass is the best example I can think of at the moment), annealing is necessary if you expect anything close to reasonable case life.

For one gun, unless you're really going to shoot a lot, it's probably cheaper and far more convenient to buy formed commercial brass. When you look at the advantages, the expensive initial price becomes not so expensive.

CH4D makes Case Forming Dies. These are not resizing dies but dies that start with 357 magnum and after a series of steps forms that brass into 256 Win. Magnum.
In this instance Forming dies work much better than sizing dies to form cases. Check out CH4D for them .
Gary

Thanks everyone. I was not aware Graf had it in stock. I ordered 140 pieces. Not having to mess with it seems like a blessing, the idea that it has a 256 headstamp is a pleasing. What i had hope for was someone to advise me that what I really needed to do was add a S&W revolver in 22 Jet to the collection. I am looking forward to shooting that little Marlin.

357 Magnum will make you both 22 Jet and 256 Winchester.
But be aware that both the 22Jet and 256Win made from 357 will be a bit shorter than factory spec cartridges.

The 22Jet made from 357brass will be about .030 shorter,,I don't remember how much shorter the 256Win comes out.

But many use the brass and have used it for years and with fine results.
357Max or 360DW brass will get you long enough cases but then you get in to a lot of trimming and the added expense of the brass to work with.
You might as well just buy a bag of commercial stuff if you can find it at that point.

The key to forming 256 from 357 is to first lightly anneal the case neck of the 357 case.
Lightly,,just a couple twists while in the flame of a propane torch and out.
Don't heat it till it turns red. That'll be too soft and the neck will collapse.

Then neck size the case down to 30 or 32 caliber.
A 30Mauser/30Tokarev die works perfect for this. (It'll make you 30Mauser Rimmed cases in one trip)
Lacking that, sometimes one of the 32cal pistol bullet seater dies has a wide enough mouth to allow alaignment of the case and still some reduction in the case dia.
The next step is a trip into the 256 FL sizer die. Carefully lube the case and you should be able to further reduce the neck w/o wrinkling it.

Some brands of brass work better for reforming than others. Nickel plated stuff generally doesn't work well at all.
Fired brass may give more problems than unfired stuff, but try the latter anyway.

Forming 22Jet brass up to 256 will result in cracked necks generally if you try to do it in one step in a sizer die or even by fire forming.

Take the 22Jet brass and open the neck to 6mm after lightly annealing them.
Then either fireform with a wax plug in place of a bullet.
..Or FL size as above in the 256Win die opening the neck up to the final dia and further forming the case so it'll chamber.
These die formed cases will look a bit odd in shape but will fill out nicely in the first firing.
,
,

LeverMatic centerfire..neat rifle.
It's not one of the ones that Marlin pushed out the door w/o putting a ser# on it is it?
BATF was definetly not happy about that!


added,,
OK, so I type slow...

Thanks, it has a serial number. If it didn't I most definitely would not send it to Marlin to have one added. I wonder if Remlin even knows about it.

if it was made before 1968 a serial number wasn't required

Center fire rifles were most defininetly required to be ser#'d before 1968 (GCA68).
It was only cal 22RF long guns and shotguns that were exempt from ser#ing by their manufacturers before.

All the GCA68 did was add those two catagorys of firearms (22RF cal long guns and shotguns) to the 'required to be ser#d' group.
With that addition,,then all (groups of firearms) were required to be ser#'d.


What happened at Marlin was the 22RF cal LeverMatics were being produced and were originally ser# when production started in the 50's.

Then later Marlin decided to stop ser#'g them as (both the 22rf and the 22Mag cal) rifles as cost saving thing. This was completely legal as this was pre 1968.
Center fire rifles were still required to be ser#'d however (pre 1968).

The Levermatic Model 62 ,the centerfire version of the rifle in 256 and 30Carbine, was introduced in 1963.
It should have been ser#'d /per Fed Law being a centerfire rifle.
But Marlin for some reason never thought to ser# the centerfire frames of the new Model 62 version when production began in '63.
They weren't ser#'g the rimfires at that point, so no one saw fit to set up a roll marking station to do the centerfire frames I guess. They all look the same,,, kinda.


They mfg'd and shipped a little over 4000 centerfire Levermatic Model 62 rifles out before anyone caught the problem.
This was still before 1968 and Marlin brought the 'issue' to the attention of the IRS (they had control of Fed Firearms Laws before the GCA68).

The slap on the hand to Marlin was to issue a continuing recall on all 4000+ Mod62 Levermatics mfg'd and sent out of the factory w/o a mfg applied ser#.
Those rifles returned to the factoiry by way of the recall,,or any such rifle that might come back to the Marlin factory for service would be issued a new IRS (Later BATF) approved ser# and such would be hand applied/stamped onto the left front side of the frame.

When I worked there in the Repair Dept in the early 70's we had a few come in but just by chance though repair requests. They got the ser# treatment.
Someone from the office would bring out the BATF paperwork and tell you what the ser# was to be wacked into it. Then record it in some manner in the paperwork. It was just a sequential number of course.

We tried to make it as neat as possible an application of the number, but being applied through the finish and then just left as-is, I doubt there were many happy customers upon the receipt of their rifle back from Repair.
A simple form letter somewhat explaining why the operation was done was included in with the rifle when returned.

That recall was supposed to be a forever thing,,but I don't know if it extended over to the Remington ownership era or not.

Anyway, that's the story of the centerfire rifle ser#'s before '68 and the Levermatics that escaped custody w/o one.
Many probably still on the loose doing damage to paper targets and woodchucks and such..