Well Lloyd Smale it was a long darn road to get mine to even shoot down in the 2 1/2 inch range at 100 yards. I mean hundreds of rounds trying. The best I found were the 300 Gr class of Boolits pushed hard.
I tried a 300Gr TCP/GC that would do 2 Inches at 100 yards but due to the small meplate I did not go with them since I planned to hunt with it. So I settled on the Lee 430-310Gr RNFP/GC sized at .432 with 21.0 Gr of W-296 in a Rem case and a CCI Large Pistol primer not the Mag as it does not normally get cold enough down here to need a mag primer.
And unlike you Lloyd Smale I just was not confident enough to use the rifle to hunt with since most of my shots start at 100 to 150 yards so in the end I traded the Marlin 1894SS in .44 Mag for a Marlin 336 CB in 38-55 and trying to work with that one at this time.