I guess it qualifies as one of those ‘older Marlin 444s’. another often told gun writer belief is that the older Marlins will not stabilize anything over 265 grains. He also gives loads for 280 and 300 grain jacketed bullets. Lee doesn’t give velocities for this bullet but does for 270 grain jacketed bullets with 46.5 grains of H4198 at 2261 fps and 3065 ft. The other very fine bullet and my second choice is the Hornady soft nose 265 grainer. Lee’s load for the 250 grain bullet is 47 grains of H41 fps at 37,132 psi and just under 3000 ft. Even with today’s new generation of premium bullets in most calibers, the Noslers still do the job and do it better than most. Like all Nosler’s partition bullets, it expands and penetrates beyond most other bullets. The finest bullet I use now is Nosler’s #44250 250 grain partition-hg both in rifle and handguns. The recovered bullet was around 55 caliber and 191 grains. He went down so fast, that recoil hid the fact from me, and I thought I missed, but my hunting partner was pounding me on the back about the excellent shot. now they are small animals but that bullet went forward the entire length of the goat and stopped under the chest hide. I shot an antelope in the butt at 125 yards or so with the same load. and tore everything inside with a 2+ inch radial wound channel. The buck folded up within 20 to 30 feet! That 240 grain bullet went all the way thru, punching out with a 50 cent size hole just behind the off shoulder knuckle. figuring I would have a lengthy tracking job, but wanted the meat. Imagine my surprise when in the late 1970s I shot a 200 lb mule deer quartering away from me behind the back ribs toward the off side shoulder. Breaking my own rule about testing everything I read in gun articles before I believe it. And since I used mostly cast bullets I never tested the various jacketed 240s in the Marlin, because it sounded so logical. The sad part is I believed all this for years. with dire warnings about wounded big game animals getting away to a lingering death. they are no good for large animals like elk because they won’t penetrate deeply enough. or.their penetration is lacking because they over expand too quickly even in deer like animals. at 444 velocity the 240 grain 44 bullets are like a bomb. It has been popular for gun writers to say things about the 240 grain 44 bullets like. I didn’t have any 225 grain 44s to run tests on, so I jumped to 240 grainers.
Barnes X bullet in 200 grains might be up to it. But at 2730 fps the muzzle energy is 3310įt.lbs. And cast would give even higher velocity. I’m not sure a 200 grain 44 bullet would hold together on a large animal at that velocity, but surely the right cast bullet would. Lee states with 57 grains under the 200 grain jacketed bullet and 41300 cup the velocity is 2730 fps. But it was only 24 fps higher than the next highest load with a powder I do have.
Plus the powder is not very accessible where I live so I could never test/check his load. The highest velocity for the 200 grain 444 bullet from the Marlin is with v-N120 and he doesn’t give a pressure reading. The Winchester Big Bore action can easily go to 50,000 psi and as we will see that makes a big difference in velocity and power. The loadings for the 444 in the Marlin rifle (we will look at the very strong Winchester Big Bore in this caliber later on.) are in Lee’s book pages 653 thru 656 and he keeps the loads pressures within the 40,000+ psi and cup ranges because of the Marlin action. of energy but I’m trying to keep this oranges and oranges) (the lighter bullets like the great 165 grain will give substantially more ft. The muzzle energy of the above three loads is 2807, 2804, and 2547 respectively. and the 250 grain jacketed bullet in 308 is just about the highest weight we can find unless we go to custom bullet makers. and the top load for the 250 grain jacketed bullet is 43 grains of H4 fps and 58423 With the 225 grain jacketed bullet and 46 grains of H4350 he states velocity is 237 that’s his top load in velocity with the 200 grain bullet. 308 with a 200 grain jacketed bullet using BL-C2 powder with 43.5 grains gives 2514 fps at 593777 Richard Lee’s excellent book MODERN RELOADING, 2 nd Edition gives the following information on heavy bullet loads.pgs.431/432. Close to the great 30-06, and with heavy weight bullets will take just about any large game animal in the Americas. 308 Winchester cartridge is less than powerful.
The information stays somewhat isolated, unless we cognitively bring about those comparisons.įew ever believe the. Why start an article on the 444 Marlin cartridge with the data on the 308 Winchester cartridge? Because most human minds like to put information into little boxes and once stored doesn’t like to run automatic comparisons of information. Riekers Sporting Agency & Gun Works | Steve's