444 Marlin for Dangerous Game.

No current pictures of a target, buy mine look about like that.

Jerry M said:

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

Click to expand...

How many yards of penetration would you like?

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1020448095?pid=827041

https://www.buffalobore.com/index.php?l=product_detail&p=156

Speer makes their 270 grain bullet for big game.

TR

Your average factory load is going to be well suited to deer sized critters up to elk but with handloading in a newer 1-20" twist rifle, the .444 becomes a whole nuther beast entirely. With cast bullets up to the 355gr and 405gr Beartooth, along with the copper/bronze solids from Barnes, Grizzly, Lehigh, etc., it is every bit as dangerous game capable as the .45-70. Tune the action as outlined in the Marshall Stanton article and that 405gr can get up to 2150fps which puts it OVER what is possible in the .45-70. That's SD equivalent to a 460gr .45-70 but 200fps faster than it can do with a 430gr. If Marlin had used a faster twist, developed some better bullets and marketed it right, the .45-70 would be nothing but a relic.

someguy2800 said:

How many yards of penetration would you like?

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1020448095?pid=827041

https://www.buffalobore.com/index.php?l=product_detail&p=156

Click to expand...

How much penetration have you gotten with these loads on dangerous game? shooting deer is different that large stuff that will ripe you to shreds.

My experience with dangerous game has been on Lion and Cape Buffalo, on which I used a .375 H&H. I have killed deer and eastern black bear with smaller calibers. Alaskan Brown Bears are in a different league in my opinion.

If 444 is .429'' then lehigh makes 265gr copper solids and barns makes a 300gr FMJ.

jmorris said:

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.

Click to expand...

That's almost exactly how fast my inline muzzel loader spat them out.
The 444 marlin has like a 1 to 2 second reload time compared to the muzzel loaders 20ish second reload time.

The hottest load for a 300gr 44mag bullet in my speer manual put 22.5gr of H110 in the round and that was the "super Redhawk only load". It it were fired from a rifle it might kick the bullet out around 1,600fps.

Jerry M said:

How much penetration have you gotten with these loads on dangerous game?

Click to expand...

Enough.

earlthegoat2 said:

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.

View attachment 941435 View attachment 941436

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Man, you are going to have to work on that. You missed the bullseye every time.

CraigC
Excellent!!! It definitely appears enough!