444 Marlin for Dangerous Game.

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357smallbore

357smallbore

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Just bought a 1977 Marlin in 444. I've seen lots of game animals taken with this and they we're dropped with authority. Deer, Elk, Maine Moose and Alaskan Moose. Saw a Bison clobbered at 190 yrds. Blew a hole clean through it.
I'm sure it'd drop any Black Bear also. What about the big bears in Alaska and Canada? I'm going to be shooting 265 Hornday and 335 cast lead flat points. Shot would not be past 200 yds.
 
The Hornady 265 grs FTX is not suitable for dangerous game. It's iffy on 200 lbs hogs. It just seems too soft and tends to expand too much, too quickly. I no longer use that bullet and stick to a 325 grs cast GC bullet from.Matt's.

The advice above about monolithic solids seems like good advice. Several people who shoot very big game with cast bullets at high velocities have experienced disappointing performance with cast, from fragmentation to internal deflection. @MaxP recently related his concerns on this front and it bears serious consideration. The 300 grs Barnes flatpoint might be the answer, though I have no experience of it. Provided you find a sure performance bullet in the 300 grs range, the 444 will perform on the dangerous game that you reference and the rifle is a great platform , provided it will stabilize the 300 grs.

This article will be of interest:

https://www.handloadermagazine.com/444-marlin

Congratulations on the new rifle!
 
Lehigh makes solid copper .429 bullets that may do the trick. Their Extreme Penetrator is one of the “Phillips screwdriver” bullets weighing 220 grains I believe.
It’s not a traditional 300+ grain .44 caliber bruiser, but even at .444 velocities you won’t need to worry about bullet blow up/fragmentation and it should have the energy and penetration to punch deep into a bear, shoulder bones and all.

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1018301729

Just a thought...

Stay safe.
 
I shoot a 320 grain hard cast from montana bullet works loaded pretty hot at about 2300 FPS. No tough or dangerous game here but the last deer I shot with it had a 1 inch hole through it and it sprayed blood several feet out both sides for 50 yards. I was impressed. We had just gotten a snow covering so I could see where the bullet went in the dirt behind it. I tried to retrieve the bullet from the soft dirt with a shovel but gave up after digging a couple feet.
 
The 444 is just a 44 mag shooting the same bullets a little faster. Early on 444's were a pretty big disappointment for Marlin because bullets at the time were designed for 44 mag revolver velocities. They all but discontinued it when they brought back the 45-70 which with modern loads will handle much better bullets than the 444.

There have been a few better options for bullets in recent years but I'd not hunt anything with a 444 that I'd not hunt with a 44 mag. Of course some pretty big game has been taken with 44 mag. It will kill all of those game animals with proper bullet choice. But if I had to stop something big that was trying to eat me or stomp me into the ground it wouldn't be in my top 10.
 
jmr40 said:
The 444 is just a 44 mag shooting the same bullets a little faster. Early on 444's were a pretty big disappointment for Marlin because bullets at the time were designed for 44 mag revolver velocities. They all but discontinued it when they brought back the 45-70 which with modern loads will handle much better bullets than the 444.

There have been a few better options for bullets in recent years but I'd not hunt anything with a 444 that I'd not hunt with a 44 mag. Of course some pretty big game has been taken with 44 mag. It will kill all of those game animals with proper bullet choice. But if I had to stop something big that was trying to eat me or stomp me into the ground it wouldn't be in my top 10.
Click to expand...


Some day you should actually familiarize yourself with the 444 Marlin. It will be of interest. In the meantime, your uninformed opinion of the 444 Marlin reminds me of a TV character in the UK making commentary on Australia: "Why would I want to go there? It's just England with sand."o_O
 
I found a unique use for .444 Marlin brass: making .44-40 blanks that will feed through lever actions. (This came up when I was using a Henry reproduction rifle in Civil War reenacting.) You can't just crimp .44-40 shells because the blanks are too short and will jam the shell lifter. The .444 Marlin brass can be trimmed to the overall length of a bulleted .44-40 round, and sized full length. The head is the same size as the .44-40.
 
I think it would be fine for anything up to Chevy bread van sized game.

The closest thing I had to the 444 was firing saboted "44mag bullets" out of my muzzle loader. My inline muzzle loader was going to be my moose gun if I had ever been drawn for a moose permit when I lived in maine.
 
From Wikipedia, “According to M.L. McPherson (Editor, Cartridges of the World), "the 444 is fully capable against any species in North America."

Which means...... absolutely nothing.
 
The idea that because a straight wall rifle cartridge shares its bullet diameter with pistol/revolver cartridge means there are no good bullet available cause they are all "pistol bullets" needs to die. 444 Marlin, 450 Bushmaster, 350 Legend etc all suffer from this misinformation generated by the internet. There are plenty of good 44 caliber bullets that will work at 444 Marlin velocities, it is not even hard to find them in this age of the internet and yet the internet keeps spreading this fallacy.

With a good properly selected bullet in 444 Marlin I wouldn't even have to shoot my buddy in the knee to deal with a bruin I would just shoot the bruin. ;)
 
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If you are dropping the money to hunt Alaska Brown Bear ($20-$30K). Buy a better rifle. Lack of penetration with the .444M would be my concern. You are not talking about a black bear - even a big one is not the 8 1/2 to 9 1/2 foot bears possible in Alaska.

If you live there and are shooting off your porch, plink away. I read an old story of a native Alaskan Woman trapper who killed on with a .22RF. This woman should also buy Lottery Tickets...

Good Luck

Jerry
 
If you are going to use a 444 against the biggest and meanest in NA, you have got to do some homework. There are very few adequate factory 444 loads for them. 444 is a hand loader’s round.

Even though, wholeheartedly agree with the post by @mcb, I do think finding decent 44 cal bullets that are suitable for the 444 is a little more difficult than say, finding a suitable bullet for a 30-06 or 45-70 pertaining to large game. One of the best heavier game bullets commonly available, the Hornady 265gr FP has been discontinued. Granted, I wouldn’t use it for browns but elk and moose would be fine with it. I have shot a dozen or so hogs with that bullet with excellent success. Either way it’s gone.

There is of course the oft mentioned twist rate of earlier 444s. 300+ gr bullets can usually be found that will group out of the 1:38 twist but experimentation and development need to be done to determine which ones will. Generally, max loads produce the tightest groups. Many have pushed the pressure envelope with the 444 and have been rewarded with heavier bullets grouping well.

I have the fullest confidence in the 444 being able to take any NA game but you have to do research and practice and experiment with different factory ammo and/or hand loads.

Start here:

https://www.marlinowners.com/threads/444-marlin-bullet-tests-standard-and-heavyweights.141818/

Then jump in feet first into here:

https://www.marlinowners.com/forums/the-444-marlin.43/
 
DocRock said:
This is another great read from.Glenn Fryxall on the 444

http://www.leverguns.com/articles/fryxell/444marlin.htm

Unfortunately, I can't seem to find Marshall Stanton's excellent 3 part article on the 444 on the Beartooth website. You may wish to look for it because it is very worthy indeed.
Click to expand...

It is gone from the Beartooth site but is still buried somewhere in the web. I had to use some strange search engine that looked for web content from the past that still exists in certain areas. I ended up finding it eventually. Couldn’t tell you how to get back to it though.
 
earlthegoat2 said:
It is gone from the Beartooth site but is still buried somewhere in the web. I had to use some strange search engine that looked for web content from the past that still exists in certain areas. I ended up finding it eventually. Couldn’t tell you how to get back to it though.
Click to expand...
Think I found it reposted sans pictures on another forum. I saved a copy to my phone if anyone wants I can PDF it pretty easy.
 
The rifling twist in your particular gun may have some effect on what bullets you can shoot. If you have one of the older guns with the 1/38 twist that may limit how heavy of a bullet your gun will stabilize. The newer guns with the 1/20 twist should be able to handle the longer, heavier bullets.

I have wanted a 444 for many years but never did get one. I had a 45/70 and shot one 90 pound whitetail with it using a reduced load. I sold it because I didn't really have a use for the power it could provide. So if I want to hunt around here with a bigger bore gun my Marlin 44 mag works fine. It blows right through Texas whitetails from any angle.
 
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The 444 is just a 44 mag shooting the same bullets a little faster.
Click to expand...

What’s “a little”?

44 mag with a 1.285” case length, pushing 240’s around 1475 fps for 1160 ft/lbs of energy.

444 marlin with a 2.225” case length, pushing 240’s around 2350 fps for 2942 ft/lbs.

Would suggest a little might be a lot. Certainly a lot more than the difference between the 44 spl and Mag.
 
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I would love to have a .444 Marlin. I would prefer a newer one. I have become expert at inspecting (and tuning) the REP guns and the current production is Ballard, not MG rifling. I was looking at one and it was perfect and while I considered on it another fella bought it :( . I would never trade my SBL to get a .444, but they are not the same gun and I want both because I am greedy. The .444 Marlin is a different beast from the .45-70. The .45-70 is George Foreman, the .444 is more like Tyson. Both are sluggers.
 
As for a 444 for dangerous game it falls right in the same bracket as the African Express rounds that were light for caliber guns according to the reading of Finn Asgard I have done. Some of the rifles for lion hunting were of 44 caliber loaded to around 2000fps with 300gr bullets. Pretty much exactly what the 444 Marlin is loaded to. That’s really why I wanted one.

In this case the bullet construction is just as important if not more important than the bullet weight.
 
slicksleeve said:
I hadn’t heard that. I have a couple boxes still. I load that bullet with Reloder 7, and the accuracy rivals a lot of bolt actions. I’ll never hunt dangerous game, man they sure are heck on deer.
Click to expand...

I have heard that Hornady developed that bullet purely for the 444 as an elk bullet specifically but also for moose.

Here is the accuracy I get with it.

B28E1902-01CF-467A-86CF-277D1C75BA0B.jpeg 08987476-485D-4F24-AC66-BC3DF9962F02.jpeg
 
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