444 marlin

[Smokepole60]

Looking for an accurate load with a 240-300 gr pill at 1300 -1400 fps or so.

[quilbilly]

about 25 gr of 5744 should do nicely.

[helice]

I have used C.E. Harris' "the Load" of 13 grains of Red Dot with a 429244, 431 280LFN pb, 430 300WFN GC for about those velocities. I was very pleased with the accuracy once I understood the arc of the "rainbow". I have used 700X and 231 W also. I suspect that most fast burning pistol powders will accomplish this. Ten grains of Unique or 12-13 grains of Blue Dot will do it also. I assume that your are shooting a Marlin of 20" or better.

[bigted]

Rl-7 my man ... RL-7 !!!

I fill my case with RL-7 to bottom of the loaded boolit of my 429650 Lyman mold. typically it is 35 grains powder [RL-7] and this allows the boolit to just kiss the powder ... however ... the velocity's are a bit over your desired 12 or 1300 FPS. they will do around 1600 + or - some.

why do you want to run em so slow? nuttin wrong with that except that if hunting ... then they may be a bit lite at these lower weight's of boolits.

I have loaded the 240 grain boolits tho with blackpowder and they are a genuine hoot. the smoke and cleanup is a super thrill and if shot at dusk or darker the spark show is just plain a hoot and a half.

the marlin can be cleaned either from the muzzle or breech after shooting bp ... from the muzzle then keep the last empty shell in the chamber to catch the goo and fouling from the initial bp cleanup. then keep cleaning till your soapy water patch's come out spotless then dry and remove the shell then oil the bore copiously with rem oil ... from the breech of course you remove the bolt and catch the ejector then swab the barrel and push the dirt out the front with the fouled soapy patch's without getting any in the action then dry and oil ...presto.

444 and RL-7 or blackpowder ... priceless!

[Shuz]

Smokepole60--If you are looking for velocity in the 1300-1400fps area, you would be much better off going to a Marlin or Winchester rifle chambered for the .44 mag, than trying to download the .444 Marlin. I have developed a load using the Lyman Devastator boolit at 270g with 17g of WC820 that gives me good accuracy and 1371fps from my Winnie Trapper with a 16
inch bbl.

[Smokepole60]

Thanks for the input guys. Full house 444's just plain ain't much fun... Killed several deer with a 45-60 using a 300 gr cast bullet an 26 grs of 5744. That loads in the 1300 area. I burn a case of black a year out of flintlocks an cartridge guns, just wantin a tack driver that's no fuss no muss an easy on the shoulder.

[bigted]

im tellin ya friend ... RL-7 will be yore friend. just cut the amount and add cornmeal to reduce the velocity but the powder will yield what you want. I load 34 grains in 45-70 and fill to boolit base with the C/M and those are so fun I never take enough with me to shoot.

might try 30 grains in your 444 with cornmeal fill to the base of boolit and if this is still too fast then cut it further. just make sure to fill the case to the bottom of boolit to compress a little and this is just to keep the powder in place next to the primer for consistent ignition.

just experiment with it and have fun with your new toy.

[6pt-sika]

For the last dozen or so years I've been messing with cast in ALOT of 444's .

I have found for the best accuracy in a cast bullet 444's a certain amount of velocity equates into accuracy .

When I first started with cast bullet hunting I was using SR4759 and a little later XMP5744 . Accuracy was deer acceptable inside 100 yards and killed well enough .

When I went to H322 , RL-7 , XMR2015 and a couple others velocities increased and accuracy actually improved .

This wasn't in just one Marlin 444 but about two dozen of the Micro Groove barreled guns and three of the ballard rifled guns . And furthermore I used bullets from 200-425 grains .

Now on the other hand I realize recoil is a reative thing . Personally I don't find most of my full bore 444 loads to be that bad . But with that being said I regularly shoot ALOT of magnum rifles up to the 505 Gibbs .

I probably shoot somewhere between 1000-2000 444 loads a year so this isn't something where I might shoot 20-50 rounds a year .

[missionary5155]

Good morning
I have enjoyed reading this thread. Next time up I will start loading for a 405 JES (caliber .41-444). This gives a good headstart on good powders to start with. Thanks !
Mike in Peru

[helice]

Smokepole,
I have come to the same conclusion as you with the 444 Marlin. I want levergun that I can push "to the wall" but I don't load a lot of those. Having the 444 allows me to load down to 300-400ft/sec with 300 grain quiet loads and up to some real shoulder rappers. I agree with BigTed that ReLoder-7 is a great powder for the 444. It is the powder I used to get high velocities with 280-300 gr. boolits. That said, it's a lot more fun to shoot when running in the 44 Special/ 44 Mag range. Guys are knocking down game with 44 pistols at amazing ranges at these velocities. I sure don't apologize for these loads.

[ironhead7544]

The Lyman #47 manual has loads for the 444 Marlin using 240-250 gr cast boolits. With a 429244 bullet with a start load of 11.5 Unique it goes 1225 fps. The max is 17.0 for 1590 fps.

I never used cast boolits in my old 444. I just downloaded the cheaper 44 cal J-words to a comfortable level for practice. The bulk J-word pistol bullets were cheap back in those days.

[pmeisel]

I use around 12-13 grains Unique with 240 grains, should work ok with the heavier bullets too. My notes for Unique in 444 Marlin stop at 16 grains.

[Salmoneye]

I second Harris' "The Load"...

I also use data from here (though not for the .444 yet):

http://www.gmdr.com/lever/lowveldata.htm