Just my experience, everyone else's may vary.
I was really disappointed in 44Mag in a Marlin 1894. To this day, it's the only gun I sold in 50 years of shooting.
Not sure if I expected too much, but... When reloaded to pistol velocity, 44 Mag loads dropped like a rock from the rifle barrel. Like a pistol round shot from a very long pistol, it still had pistol trajectory, kinda like a rainbow arc overhead. Like lobbing a rock. So I started loading hotter and hotter trying to get something near 30-30 performance (not matching 30-30, just anywhere near that) and went down to 180g bullets for better velocity. To be sure, the rifle could handle it easily, no problem there. But the cases aren't made robust enough for loads that hot, they split on the second or third use and sometimes burned holes down at the base. I guess I fooled myself, but it just isn't a rifle caliber no matter what I wanted it to be.
Meanwhile, I've been loading and shooting 30-30 as a brush gun since 1960. I like 170 grain best, but 125 and 150 are also easy to work up loads. And now Hornady has it's new soft polymer tip bullets. I continue to be satisfied with 30-30 in a lever gun. No offense to 44 Mag, I still shoot it in my Super Blackhawk and I love it. But it wasn't the lever rifle cartridge I thought I could make it.
