Anybody have or shoot a 444 Marlin?

[Kenneth Brown]

I traded my Beretta 92 FS today for a 444 Marlin with a super nice scope on it. I was at a gun show with my dad and he was gonna try to swap his CZ 40 cal. I really liked his gun so we were gonna see what kind of deal he'd get and then the same type deal on my Beretta and I'd pay the difference. He ended up swapping his and $50 for a folding stock blued Ruger Mini 14. I really liked my pistol and it was my carry gun when I was a cop so I hated to part with it but if you've ever been to a gun show....... It wasn't 2 minutes later and I worked an even trade for the 444. I went a bought a box of shells at a whopping $37 for a box of 20. There won't be much plinking with it at $2 a shot. Now we get to shoot it. Oh yeah, that'll kill a hog quick. I called my wife and told her about it and she wanted to know if I could go deer hunting with it. I replied ya but their gonna laugh at me. I told her I could hunt anything in North America with it. Its a hoss, and its what I wanted- A big bore lever gun. This rounds out my collection nicely.

 

[Hoss the Hermit]

Re: Anybody have or shoot a 444 Marlin?

My cousin useta have one, I used it quite a bit, Great moose killer. Don't try to stretch the range though, drops fast after a hundred yards.

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: Anybody have or shoot a 444 Marlin?

You will not regret it. I love big bore lever's and I use a 45-70. If you are going to do alot of shooting...... take up reloading. Ammo prices have gone nuts. Congrats!

 

[JB]

Re: Anybody have or shoot a 444 Marlin?

I tried one out back in the '70s. Compared it to the Marlin 1895 in .45-70. I went with the .45-70 because of the wider range of loads I could make, but performance as a woods gun was comparable. Pretty much the same gun, just different cartridge.

 

[mscher]

Re: Anybody have or shoot a 444 Marlin?

My friend has one that I have shot a few times. Good fun.

With that monster, my joke is always "OK, now all I need is a Cape Buffalo, to shoot at and I'll be all set"

A fun gun.

 

[Lone Duck]

Re: Anybody have or shoot a 444 Marlin?

My friend has one that I have shot a few times. Good fun.

With that monster, my joke is always "OK, now all I need is a Cape Buffalo, to shoot at and I'll be all set"

A fun gun.

I have never shot one, But I have fired a couple. Great bush gun.

 

[thurps]

Re: Anybody have or shoot a 444 Marlin?

Hoss the Hermit is right about the range so forget the salted bullets. Great brush gun though.

 

[Kenneth Brown]

Re: Anybody have or shoot a 444 Marlin?

The seller claimed it had less than a box of shells through it. He said he installed the scope and had it bore sighted. It took two bullets to get it zeroed in at 100 yards. We fired 6 rounds through it, I figured $12 is enough to know if its gonna hit or not. We were shooting at 150 yards which is realistically about twice the distance I ever plan to shoot. Using the trucks hood as a rest I was grouping in less than 3". This was using Hornady LEVERevolution 265 grain bullets. I'm thoroghly impressed.

 

[Kenneth Brown]

Re: Anybody have or shoot a 444 Marlin?

I have never shot one, But I have fired a couple. Great bush gun.

It took me a minute to figure it out, I am blond afterall. So going by your line of thinking- What did it have to do for you to fire it? Was it late too many times, sleeping on the job, poor performance?

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: Anybody have or shoot a 444 Marlin?

LEVERevolution Wow about the most costly bullets you can get!....But top performers too.

 

[Hoss the Hermit]

Re: Anybody have or shoot a 444 Marlin?

The other thing to think about is, the "super nice scope". If it really is a good one, 3x-9x, something in that range, you may want to think about swapping it on to another rifle, 'cause ya don't need it on this one. You want a 2x (max) w/ post-crosshair, or dot reticule, because the ranges you'll be using it at you will lose a lot of field if you go to higher mag. Just make sure you get one that will take the pounding. And yeah, I would give the 45-70 a (very) slight edge, but it's still a great rifle.

 

[Benny1963]

Re: Anybody have or shoot a 444 Marlin?

hey whats up kenneth great gun but ya have to reload to shoot on a daily basis.i use a 4x and equiped it with a set of holden iron sighters so you can still use your open sights ,
see ya bennyb

 

[Kenneth Brown]

Re: Anybody have or shoot a 444 Marlin?

Bob- That is all I could get. According to another fella I didn't go wrong as Federal and Remington always have problems in his. Ya, its expensive to shoot. I still figure that $2 bullet is well worth the 75-100 pounds of meat. I have a 22 for plinking and if I get really cheap then I shoot my daughters BB/pellet gun.

Hoss- The scope is a Nikon Buckmaster with 3-9X I think 40mm lens. I don't have anything else to put it on except a lever 30-30 and that would defeat the purpose. I have a nice scope on the Mini14, a decent one on my wifes 243. I really like it and its already zeroed in so its gotta stay. Most shots will be coming out of the truck window shooting feral hog. They'll be eating baited corn and are usually too stupid to move. I agree that a 45-70 is a better cartridge because you can load it heavier. With the 45-70 its a .450 bore and the 444 is actually only .429. That being said our deer only weigh in about 150 pounds. Hogs here get to 400 or so but the most common size I'll ever see is 150-200 pounders. 3170 pounds of muzzle energy should suffice.

Benny- Ain't no way I'm gonna try to shoot this thing too often. It won't hurt my feelings one bit if my grandkids inherit it and its only had 2-3 boxes shot through it.

 

[JB]

Re: Anybody have or shoot a 444 Marlin?

You ought to be able to load bigger bullets for that, KB. 250 or so grains seems like an awfully light bullet for a .44 rifle.

I loaded my .45-70 with everything from 250 grains to 500. . .elephant bullets. I think I would want 350-400 grains at least for big hogs.

I did have, for a very brief time, a Ruger #1 in .458 Winchester Mag. That dang thing was a cannon. An acquaintance talked me out of it, said he would use it on moose and grizzly. I actually think it was overkill for them. Your 444 or a .45-70-405 would have done well.

 

[Kenneth Brown]

Re: Anybody have or shoot a 444 Marlin?

Looking online I've been able to find 320 grain in a factory load. As little as I shoot I'll just buy ready mades. I'm still looking up info on the gun and caliber trying to learn more about it. Heres some info I found- "A 265 grain Hornady Interlock bullet is also offered in a Hornady Light Magnum .444 factory load at a MV of 2335 fps and a ME of 3208 ft. lbs. At 100 yards the figures are 1913 fps and 2153 ft. lbs. Hornady claims that their 265 grain JSP bullet has optimum expansion characteristics for the .444 cartridge and that it is a deadly game stopper, suitable for most North American big game. This is the bullet that made the .444's reputation as an elk and moose cartridge"
Here are the bullet specs- Leverevolution is the most exciting thing to ever happen to lever gun ammunition. Hornady, the leader in ballistic technology, brings you an innovation in ammunition performance featuring state of the industry elastomer Flex Tip Technology that is safe in your tubular magazine. Its higher ballistic coefficient delivers dramatically flatter trajectories for fantastic downrange energy increases and amazing bullet expansion at all ranges. It truly is an Evolution in lever gun ammunition!

Velocity (fps):
Muzzle: 2325
100 yds: 1971
200 yds: 1652
300 yds: 1380
Energy (ft/lb):
Muzzle: 3180
100 yds: 2285
200 yds: 1606
300 yds: 1120
Trajectory Tables:
Muzzle: -1.5
100 yds: 3.0
200 yds: -1.4
300 yds: -18.6

And would you beleive we have a member here whose handle is 444Marlin ?

 

[Hondo65]

Re: Anybody have or shoot a 444 Marlin?

Yup, I have one. I put a limbsaver recoil pad on it(same number as a Remington 870) I have a fixed power 6x Leupold on mine. I use the LeverEvolution Ammo. From a bench I was hitting 1.5" groups @ 125 yards. Easy 250-300 yd gun with that load. I love that rifle.

Hondo

 

[turfman]

Re: Anybody have or shoot a 444 Marlin?

The .444 marlin was/is a great round. It was about as powerful a round you could get in a lever gun back in the 60's. Wasn't until the mid 80's that the 45/70 started getting popular again with +p loads. That kinda took the wind out of its sails, plus the advent of Cowboy action shooting flooded the market with high and low performance 45/70 rounds. I took one in on trade about 15yrs ago and then got rid of it. I do however have the data on the handloads I did for it and goes as follows.

300grn hornadys over 50grn RL7 , rem 9 1/2 primers and cases trimmed to 2.57.
My chart showed that it read 2300fps over the ohler 35, and given that it should have been around 3500-3600 muzzle energy.

I don't know if this load is valid anymore as it was from 1995; I don't recall what bullets I bought for it and if they are available anymore.

BTW I would have traded the 92 for this gun anyday of the week.