Has the 444 Marlin gone away? From what I read, it was a great all around round but I don't see many factory loaded ammo offerings.

I still shoot one,but I hand load it. It will pile drive critters!

Doing good enough to shoot the tops off Thistles in a slow breeze. Great cartridge.

It suffers from factory ammo and components that do not live up to the potential of the cartridge. Also 45/70 steals a lot of potential users away.

I shot a friends when the caliber first came out. I reloaded some 265 gr. Hornadys for him. One day at the hunting cabin we were shooting and he challenged me to hit the roofing nail that was holding up the target-----well from a sitting position at 50 yds. I missed by 1/4 ", the second shot drove the nail right into the tree! NO BRAG---JUST FACT !
It was a beautiful rifle also as he had stripped down the stock, bleached it blond and refinished it! IT SURE WAS PRETTY !

Hipshot

Anybody shoot this rifle with .44 mag. or .44 Special ammo even if it is in single shot mode? Seems that if you can shoot a .38 SPL. outa a .357 mag. gun you can shoot a .44 mag. outa a .444 Marlin!

Hipshot

We have one, but haven't taken anything with it.

I would love to Marlinize an elk or bear with it.

It's the older microgroove guy with a montecarlo stock and half magazine. The scope is a 1.75-6x42 Burris Signature.

Kills rocks really well.

While sales of the .444 Marlin haven't set the world on fire, brass for the cartridge continues to sell at a brisk pace, thanks in large part to several wildcats based on it.

I guess that is good news to those who roll their own for the .444.

Other than the JDJ wildcats, Bobby what other wildcats are their?

I had heard it was just 9.3x74R brass shortened to work in a lever.

I don't have either cartridges at my house to measure them.

In addition to the .375 JDJ and the .309 JDJ, there's the lesser-known .411 JDJ from SSK Industries. There are also several makers chambering 6.5x444, 7x444 and the 35x444. Of course, JDJ equivalents without the JDJ moniker are offered by a number of custom makers.

All in all, it's enough to keep the sales of the .444 brass at a respectable level.

Is the 309 as fast as a 30-06?

The .309 JDJ basically gives .308 WCF ballistics in a package that is safe for use in the Contender. A .308, of course, can't be chambered in one, and the .309 JDJ was Jones' effort to give the maximum performance potential to the Contender platform for those who pursue deer, antelope, etc.

444Marlin brass is made from the same "blank"
as the 30-06.

The 44 Mag case is smaller in front of the rim.

quote:

Originally posted by Hipshoot:
Anybody shoot this rifle with .44 mag. or .44 Special ammo even if it is in single shot mode? Seems that if you can shoot a .38 SPL. outa a .357 mag. gun you can shoot a .44 mag. outa a .444 Marlin!

I've never tried that. I have down-loaded the 444Mar and it makes a fine Plinker though a bit Heavy to tote for that task.

I would be concerned about creating a very difficult to remove Carbon Deposit ahead of the short Case. Then when you fire the normal 444Mar Case, it would possibly "Hang" on the Carbon.

Saw this happen to a young fellow who had been using 38Spls in his 357Mag. He thought he had cleaned the Cylinder real well, but you could feel the roughness of the Carbon with a tight Paper patch. Handed him a Tornado Brush and he finally got it scrubbed out.

Good Hunting and clean 1-shot Kills.

For those who might be interested Midway currently has box 500 Rem .444 brass in their clearance sale for $178 which is about 25 per cent off their regular prices.

I have had one of these Marlin triple 4's for over 20 year now. Neat shooting rifle and my 265gr. Hornady handloads are tack drivers in my rifle. Love to "hear" that bullet "smack" the target at the 100 yards line. Ive used mine to shoot my one and only American bison ( 1 shot at about 60 yards, sitting) and 1 Texas whitetail doe ( again 1 shot from a ground blind at about 70 yds). Its going with me to Montana this fall and hopefully add another whitetail anterless to its list of kills. A fun gun for me and it does get used.

Willi

One can load 410 shotshells to almost factory levels in the 444 Marlin case. The case will fit the Taurus Judge pistol and that is why I started playing around with it.

I had a 444 Marlin once and shot a snowshoe rabbit with it but there was nothing much left. I thought it kicked very hard... I have had big double rifles that did not seem to bother me as much.


it is a good round

quote:

Originally posted by Hipshoot:
Anybody shoot this rifle with .44 mag. or .44 Special ammo even if it is in single shot mode? Seems that if you can shoot a .38 SPL. outa a .357 mag. gun you can shoot a .44 mag. outa a .444 Marlin!

Hipshot

No, it should not be done. The rim and case heads have different dimensions. Plus the bullet would be unsupported for almost an inch. This would be very hard on the chamber throat as the bullet is sure to not be square when it contacts it.
http://stevespages.com/jpg/cd444marlin.jpg
http://stevespages.com/jpg/cd44remingtonmagnum.jpg

quote:

Originally posted by Big Cabin:
Has the 444 Marlin gone away? From what I read, it was a great all around round but I don't see many factory loaded ammo offerings.

Both Remington and Hornady still load ammo for it.

Ken....

Hornady loads the Leverevolution rounds for the 444. Nice ballistics on those loads.....

Reloader

I've played with the .444 a bit and really like it but as others have said, it is handicaped by the usual handgun bullets. Sectional density is nearly round ball catagory with 240's. Well not really, but not very impressive. The up side is that at the range it's typically used at this isn't THAT big a deal. However there are some awesome bullets out there for it. I was using 300's in my experimenting but Buffalo Bore (?) makes some really nasty ones specificly for the .444.
I've been tempted to chamber a double in it since I still have the brass, dies etc. from the previous project but the rim is rather anemic for the less agressive extractor on a double... perfectly adequate but not as healthy as the usual candidates. Then there is the issue of it being at the upper pressure limits for a conversion double... In case you can't tell, I do like it, just haven't found the ideal platform to utilize it yet!
As an interesting asside, during my previous experimenting with the .444 I was suffering from a pinched nerve in my neck. One evening after shooting about twenty rounds of .444's I noticed my neck/shoulder didn't hurt anymore! I can only assume it knocked whatever was pinching the nerve back into place. Wouldn't reccomend this unorthodox treatment but telling the story has gotten some strange looks!

oupa wrote:

quote:

As an interesting asside, during my previous experimenting with the .444 I was suffering from a pinched nerve in my neck. One evening after shooting about twenty rounds of .444's I noticed my neck/shoulder didn't hurt anymore! I can only assume it knocked whatever was pinching the nerve back into place. Wouldn't reccomend this unorthodox treatment but telling the story has gotten some strange looks!

You know, 20 rounds of .444 was a heck of a lot cheaper than any visit to a physician...

That's just my kind of treatment.