any 444 marlins out there?

[mickb]

Just curious if anyone is still running one of these?

[JimTom]

I have a mate who has one. Not sure how much he uses it though. Only one I’ve ever seen in the flesh.

[Billo]

Is a interesting round, had a fire of a mates rifle last year which had a very nice kick. Biggest issue I see with the round is the lack of hunting projectile

[mickb]

apparently speer closing down its 265 grain bullet recently hurt owners too as it was built for the higher speeds and very popular

[deye243]

This is a Calibre that has always intrigued me , I have always wanted one of the Marlin lever action in 444m when I know a bloke up this way in east Gippsland who was shot many Sambar with one of these and if you're lucky you should still be able to find some Woodleigh 280 grain projectiles specifically designed for the velocities of the triple 444 marlin

[bigpete]

apparently speer closing down its 265 grain bullet recently hurt owners too as it was built for the higher speeds and very popular

I've got some i loaded in my 44 mag. Extremely accurate. Can't say how they went on game though

[Border_Bloke]

A bloke in the Archery club here has a 444 and swears by it for Sambar.

[mickb]

Id be half tempted to pick one up if I saw a good deal . In the winchester bigbore action would be interesting, action is rated over 50,000 cup. 444 on this action outpowers 45-70 in a 1895. Crappier bullet selection by a long way of course.

[mickb]

Another interesting factoid is winchester listing 1:38 twist for all 444 rifles when owners have actually measured their barrels twist and different models range between 1:12 to 1:26. Possibly one of the largest continued misprints in winchesters history

[Boundry Rider]

Another interesting factoid is winchester listing 1:38 twist for all 444 rifles when owners have actually measured their barrels twist and different models range between 1:12 to 1:26. Possibly one of the largest continued misprints in winchesters history

Sounds like a Toyota ploy @mickb lol
But back on topic, why not download with a 450 Marlin?

[mickb]

yeah bizarre mistake Id say since people preferred the tighter twists they ended up with.

Re 450 marlin I think you'd just be swapping one obscure calibre for another. 444 marlin is as powerful in the right lever action. 45-70 vs both of them makes more sense Id say. One advantage would be running 44 mag projectiles if you have a lot of them.

[Wrangler]

G,day fellas First time here so bear with me
I have a 444 marlin bought relatively cheaply a few years back and just love it
It gave acceptable hunting accuracy with jacketed bullets and is a pig stopper like few others, 240gr bullets will kill any pig side on, they will stop big pigs with rear end shots but lack penetration to kill the big fellas outright at that angle. The 265gr Hornady will do it all. I’ve not tried other heavy jacketed bullets.
The price of 265 grainers jumped from $55:00 to $82:00 per 100 so I bought a mould, a 265gr 432 dia flat nose gas check complete with hollow and cup point pins and have been on a steep learning curve ever since.
Lesson 1. Cast bullets need to be 2thou more in dia than barrel groove dia, particularly in a micro groove barrel.
Lesson 2. Marlin 44cal rifles are notorious for having “oversize” barrel groove dia
Lesson 3. The lazy 1: 38 twist rate in older 444 marlins may or may not stabilise longer / heavy bullets.
So I dusted off the wallet and had it rebarreled with a 429 groove dia 7 groove 1: 20 twist tube. It’s still early days but is very promising. The 265gr cup point gas check cast bullets shoot very well so far only shot 50 yard groups and killed 3 fallow stag’s rattled in to 25 yards earlier this year. These were all side on shots and put them down very quickly. Only recovered 1 bullet from the stags it was mushroomed nicely and weighed 95gr, alloy is 50:50 wheel weight lead and pure lead , velocity is roughly 1750fps
Just waiting to get at the pigs again
Sorry to be so long winded. Short story is the 444 is a fantastic short to medium range heavy hitter, yes I have hunted with a 45/70

[straightshooter]

Wrangler
I agree with most of what you say although I suspect the rebarrel job may have been a needless extravagance.
I have owned the same 444 Marlin with 22" microgroove barrel since the mid 70's and I can confirm it's spectacular effectiveness on even the largest pigs whether front on or side on with just straight forward 240 grain flat soft point projectiles.
Over the years I have used 180gn, 200gn, 240gn, 240gn FMJ, 265gn and 300gn all with acceptable results on pigs although these days when the opportunity presents itself I prefer to use a 44 mag with 180 gn projectiles. One of the joys of getting older.

[bladeracer]

He rebarrelled it because he wants to use cast bullets. It is possible to get a microgroove barrel to shoot fairly well with cast bullets, but it can be a real headache making it possible. I put in far too much time and money into getting my Marlin .44 Mag to shoot reasonably well with cast bullets, but I never got it good enough to consider using them on live targets. With jacketed bullets it shoots extremely well, no issues at all.

How does yours shoot with cast bullets?

Wrangler
I agree with most of what you say although I suspect the rebarrel job may have been a needless extravagance.
I have owned the same 444 Marlin with 22" microgroove barrel since the mid 70's and I can confirm it's spectacular effectiveness on even the largest pigs whether front on or side on with just straight forward 240 grain flat soft point projectiles.
Over the years I have used 180gn, 200gn, 240gn, 240gn FMJ, 265gn and 300gn all with acceptable results on pigs although these days when the opportunity presents itself I prefer to use a 44 mag with 180 gn projectiles. One of the joys of getting older.

[Wrangler]

bladeracer
I’ve only shot enough groups to get the 444 on target ready for the fallow rut just past .
At 50 yards the 265gr cast cup points group a smidge over an inch. Cast flat nose bullets from a lee 310gr mould 320gr with gas check, seem to group a little tighter and I’d love to try these on pigs and deer but they won’t feed reliably probably because of the very large meplat.
No scope, just a Williams receiver sight and 57 year old boiler makers eyes I think this rifle is showing promise.
I also extended the mag tube to the muzzle giving a capacity of 7.
The only negative I see in owning a 444 is the cost of and availability of brass.
Would love to have my 20 year old eyes back.

[bladeracer]

Did you try cast bullets before the rebarrel?

bladeracer
I’ve only shot enough groups to get the 444 on target ready for the fallow rut just past .
At 50 yards the 265gr cast cup points group a smidge over an inch. Cast flat nose bullets from a lee 310gr mould 320gr with gas check, seem to group a little tighter and I’d love to try these on pigs and deer but they won’t feed reliably probably because of the very large meplat.
No scope, just a Williams receiver sight and 57 year old boiler makers eyes I think this rifle is showing promise.
I also extended the mag tube to the muzzle giving a capacity of 7.
The only negative I see in owning a 444 is the cost of and availability of brass.
Would love to have my 20 year old eyes back.

[Wrangler]

Yes
Cast bullets from slow trail boss loads to gas checked loads at around 1900 fps all gave pretty average results
Jacketed 240 and 265gr bullets shot ok.

[yoshie]

I've got a Marlin 444S, I was doing a bit of lever action Metallic Silhouette and a bit of hunting and saw one cone up on Usedguns.com.au. I've only used it a few times on a pig and it wss quite effective. I've had a few kids since then and it's been in the safe since. I plan to get it out and go hunting a bit more. I have alot of 44 projectiles as I shoot hand gun metallic silhouette with a couple of 44 mag revolvers and a single shot. I like the marlin as you can put a scope or peep sight in it easily. I've shot it a few times with hard cast lead and have found 180g commercial shoot well. The 240s not so well, I suspect they may have been under sized and or not fast enough.

[jpsauer88]

I have one - its the remlin (1:20 barrel)
I have used
300g hornady xtp (with AR2207 and AR2206H) 2206H produced same velocity and smaller groups, more recoil though? odd.
240g hornady xtp with ar2207
265g hornady tipped both factory and loaded. Hand loaded they shot more accurate, 3 shot cloverleaf.

I like the 300g because I like using 2206H as its versatile and although its 50g charge, still better than having a bottle of 2207 sitting there purely for the 444.

I love the caliber. easy to reload for.
I even loaded 240g Cast with 2205, 1600fps, basically a 44mag. (adi sent me data for this)