I do not own a .444 rifle . But I have been looking at the Lyman 47 th edition manual . From what I can tell , w/ cast bullets , the .444 does not have a great advantage over .44 Mag ?

God bless

Wyr

The information you are looking at barely scratches the surface for the .444. Try this link first for the three part tech Note from Marshall.

http://beartoothbullets.com/tech_notes/archive_tech_notes.htm/17 (http://beartoothbullets.com/tech_notes/archive_tech_notes.htm/17)

the search function works quite well and there hundreds of threads about loading the .444 Marlin to its full potential on the various forums. If you don’t find enough information to boggle your mind ask again and I’ll put up a series of links.

Lyman's data is for little girls! Here is a ballistic chart for my 444T's hunting load with a 265-grain home cast bullet and 46.0-grains of H4198. This is what I shot my desert mule deer with.

http://www.ranchdogmolds.com/TLC432265RF/Images/TLC432265RF_460H4198_2211FPS_100YD.gif

Here is a chart for my Marlin 336-44 (44 Mag) shooting a home cast 300-grain bullet with 21.0-grains of H110. I've killed a lot of hogs with this load and bullet.

http://www.ranchdogmolds.com/TLC432300RF/44MagData/Images/TLC432300RF_210H110_1587FPS_100YD.gif

So , you are saying the Lyman data is a tad conservative ?

God bless
Wyr

Just a tad!!;) As is most Manuals now a days -dam lawyers any way!! That's why reloading is so much fun -finding that sweet load for each gun:)

So , you are saying the Lyman data is a tad conservative ?

No, for the most part they choose to use pistol powders to generate low pressures. They've got to do that because most of their bullets designs are VERY generic in nature (none made for the 444 Marlin), they don't fit the chamber, throat/leade, and bore well so the bullets can't withstand ANY pressure behind them without failing.

The Beartooth Bullets do fit and you can use jacketed bullet data for like weights. If you are thinking about a 444 Marlin, THE BULLET is the Beartooth 290-grain LFNGC. If you are only going to shoot one bullet for big game, it should be this bullet.

If you are interested in the 444 Marlin, look for the three part series that Marshall Stanton wrote on the Beartooth side of this site.

http://www.beartoothbullets.com/tech_notes/archive_tech_notes.htm/17
http://www.beartoothbullets.com/tech_notes/archive_tech_notes.htm/19
http://beartoothbullets.com/tech_notes/archive_tech_notes.htm/28

I have had good service with this discontinued bullet in my 1969 vintage 444 marlin w/24" barrel over a healthy charge of reloader-7. It weighs in at 290 gr. sized, lubed and checked.

I'm on board with RD. Read the 444 articles from Marshall. I have had great success with accuracy and field performance from the 280wfn and 325wln. I bought my 444 Marlin 3 years ago and it shoots nothing but BTB cast! One of the best decisions I've ever made. Looking to try the 290's. Good luck.

You can push some T4 loads to about 2400 fps if more felt recoil just tickles your fancy. use the knock down calculator on this site to do some comparisons of .444 with .44. Lucky for Marshall that the commercial jacketed bullet manufacturers don't make bullets that actually fit the barrel of most T4s.