Rifle looks new but has had some work done on it. It has been "throated" to make feeding smoother and a Limbsaver recoil pad installed. It shoots the 265 gr. Leverevolution ammo extremely well. I put a 4x Weaver on it and was able to put three touching though after sighting it in I was not all that interested in shooting groups with factory ammo. Even with the Limbsaver you could say the rifle is a bit "buckish". I guess before I sell it I will hunt with it a bit, at least until my factory ammo is shot up. I ordered two boxes of the flat nosed Hornady Superperformance loads but won't test them until I run out of the Leferevolution rubber tips.

Come on man!!

LOL at "buckish" Tears come to my eyes a couple minutes BEFORE I pull the trigger on mine...... and I am not normally recoil shy.

A true annoyance is the Leverevolution brass is a LOT shorter than the regular brass. I would be shooting cast 250 grainers at a gentle 1700 fps but no I have to wait till I get some regular length brass! That said I am going to take some pictures of several guns to put up for sale and I will take some of this rifle. This one is a 2004 model with Ballard rifling. I like the rifle and this is my third 444 might just keep this one.

You are going to like those Superformance in the 444. I grin every time I shoot mine.

By the time my Superperformance factory loads got here I worked up a good shooting load pushing the 300 gr. Nosler HP at just under 1700 fps. Shoots great and recoil is not bad at all. I will save the Superperformance for more serious stuff than feral hogs. After the Nosler bullets are gone I am going to try a couple of Speer bullets at the same speed, a 240 gr. flat nose and their 270 grain Gold dot bullet. The farthest I can see on my present lease is 90 yards or so and I really don't need to be beaten up when a lessor load will do just fine.

I'm a 444 Marlin fan from way back. Here is my '71 444T, the serial number is a '72, common as Marlin continued to fill placed orders. About a decade ago, I sent it to Robert Bose in NE to refurb the rifle as I thought it deserved it after a lifetime of tough hunting. The picture is before scoping it.



The 444 will do just about anything you need it to do.



A desert mule deer that was taken at 297-yards.



I also have the "P," aka "Outfitter." The rifle in the back of the lineup.



To explore the utility of the rifle, it helps to become a bullet caster. The nilgai was killed with a 275-grain bullet of my design, spitting out of the barrel at 2400 FPS. Same with the mule deer. I came up with a 250, 275, 300, and 350-grain designs and still use them all as the purpose dictates. I have some 400-grain bullets left that Peter Thornily designed, this fellow was instrumental in promoting the 444. We communicated via snail mail, and have kept that communication close.

When I had my bullet mold business, I filled an order with my 350-grain designs that an outfitter in Russia placed. About a year and a half earlier, I had sent a single mold to Russian and as it turns out, they had tested the various rifles/ammo at close range on their Country's big bears and decided on the 444. The business had imported 444Ps from Marlin and reloading equipment from Lee.

I did fool around with some cast bullets. First up was the LEE 310 gr. WFN but I had mold issues and I believe I cast them too soft, at any rate I could only get groups of five inches or so with them. Next I tried a Lyman 429421 Keith design cast of harder alloy WW and pure. These shot well and I have some ready, they are going somewhere in the 1500 fps range pushed with Blue Dot. The bullets I ordered from Midway arrived but I am going to test the ones I already have loaded first. I would like to have a plain based mold for a bullet in the 275-300 grain weight range and a WFN of your design would be perfect though I want an Iron mold of good quality. Actually this is the first aluminum mold I had any trouble with. The screw holding the sprue plate is seized and is way too tight. It is a phillips and of pretty soft metal, it started to deform before I could get it to loosen. Still I cast some good looking bullets with it but the sprue plate scarred the top of the mold and I want a plain base design. Looking forward to doing some feral hog control Sunday night.

How old is your Lee mold? The new ones have left hand threads on the sprue plate, which is a great improvement over the old ones with standard threads.

All I use are aluminum molds. I like their lightweight, how they heat quickly, and the ability to modulate any heat build-up with a damp rag on the casting bench. You do need to follow the instruction and lube the alignment pins and the point that the sprue plate pivot. T-boy brings up a good point about the newer molds (starting about five years ago), have the reverse threads (2 cavity molds).

With a Marlin, if your bullet is sized any smaller than .432", you won't realize the accuracy you should from the rifle. Plain base, I would want a .433" bullet. I only shoot gas checked bullets, the expense is nil, and it eliminates a lot of problems. The Lee C430-310-RF is woefully undersized.

I started with that Lee bullet and had the same accuracy challenges that most shooters experience. I drew up my first bullet based on that mold and ran a group- buy, ordering it from Lee (TLC432-265-RF). Everything changed with that silly .002"! If I can reminisce, the mold's arrival was perfect. It left time for the casters to get ready for hunting, and those 24 other 444 shooters could hunt. That first fall, every native, hooved animal in North American fell to the bullet except the mountain goat and sheep. Black bear fell as well. I had never met any other 444 hunters at that point, so I was impressed.

This one is brand new! May try to reverse direction and see if it moves. I have one bought a year ago for my 45 Colt and it is right hand thread. I will also measure some of the cast bullets.

Yep .429 on the nose. The Lyman mold drops em at .431, might be why it shoots pretty good.

Yeah, even the Lyman is a bit short. Almost all of the 44 caliber bullet mold offerings; Lee, Lyman, RCBS, offerings were designed for the 44 Revolver. Those tend to work better in the Winchester chambered 444s where they have a very short step in the chamber. The Marlin's have a generous throat, compromised of leade to a step, that must be filled for accuracy.