444 MARLIN ...load question...?

[The Black Spot]

anyone ever tried lilgun, 2400 or bluedot in the 444? I have pound of lilgun would like to use, but open to other suggestions. thanks

[Wally]

anyone ever tried lilgun, 2400 or bluedot in the 444? I have pound of lilgun would like to use, but open to other suggestions. thanks

Never used that powder in the .444 ... I use 17.0 Unique with a 250 grain Keith bullets sized to .431"...gives you 1,700 FPS MV. I have to seat to the front of the front driving band. Also have used the Lyman 429244 250 SWC-GC with good results. I have not done well with a Lyman 429215 (215 SWC-GC)....

[The Black Spot]

thanks, wish I had some unique. I am shooting that lee 310 right now with 47 gr of varget, but, that eats up powder fast.

[Wally]

thanks, wish I had some unique. I am shooting that lee 310 right now with 47 gr of varget, but, that eats up powder fast.

I have found that it's best for me to use powders like Promo, Red Dot, & Unqiue to get more bang for the buck...as I like to shoot a lot!

[6pt-sika]

I'd say I shoot something like 1,500-2,000 rounds of 444 each year and I base that number solely on how fast I go thru 44 cal gaschecks . Some of it certainly is for the 44 MAG but no more then 200-400 .

Anyway I've not used any of the powders mentioned with the 444 .

Typically I use H322 , IMR8208 , Varget , RL7 , XMR2015 , VV N-120 , VV N-130 , VV N-530 , H4198 , H335 and IMR4198 .

All the powders above are for hunting/high octane loads .

In the past I've used a fair amount of XMP5744 for what I would call midgrade hunting loads .

And in the last 6 months I used a can or two of TrailBoss working with subsonic loads in a pair of 444's .

[Lloyd Smale]

dont know if this will help but heres a good article my best friend Al wrote on the 444. http://www.leverguns.com/articles/anderson/444Outfitter.htm

[The Black Spot]

Lloyd, great article! thanks

[Shuz]

Anybody use 4759 and cast boolits in their .444 Marlin?

[6pt-sika]

Anybody use 4759 and cast boolits in their .444 Marlin?

Never used it in the 444 but before I found XMP5744 I used it quite a bit in a 45-70 or two !

[rintinglen]

About 10 years ago, I used 23 grains of 2400 under an RCBS 44-225 SWC gc in a Marlin. I did not use it much, as that gun didn't shoot very well with anything I tried, so it went down the river when I got a Marlin 1895 CB that did shoot well. As I recall, I had to crimp over the front driving band to get it to feed properly.

[The Black Spot]

I loaded up 17 gr of bluedot behind a 310 ww bullet. we will see how that goes.

[uscra112]

I use it in my .357 Maximum, 12" Contender barrel, mostly with 185 grain j-warts. It ought to be possible to make it work in the .444 too. Slower than 2400, a tad faster than 4227.

What barrel length? What weight boolits?

[helice]

Black Spot,
I have always liked Blue Dot for its ease of lighting off and its bulk. I suspect that your load will get you about 1300 to 1350'/sec. I have used 4227 to get decent targets but my hunting load is from Re-7. I've used fast pistol powders, Red Dot, 231W and 700X, with 170 and 250 grain boolits for plinking fun and for getting people 'used to' the 444, before they take a heavy charge. 444 is a great ctg. It can be loaded down to 44 Special or hot rodded to painful proportions.

[Lloyd Smale]

20 grains of 2400 and about any cast bullet makes a nice pleasant load. Ive killed a few hogs and deer with that load and a 280lfn.

[The Black Spot]

anyone tell me how high and low I can go with bluedot and 2400 and a 310 gr bullet? I dont want to go over max or under minimum.

[helice]

There is nothing I can find concerning top loads with Blue Dot.
I found an older Hercules Guide that listed a 265 gr Hornady FP with 25 grains of 2400.