Have any of you shot 44 Magnum or 44 Special cartridges in a 444 Marlin rifle? If so, how did it go?

Why would I ever want to do this? I've been itching to shoot my 444 Marlin in our lever action silhouette matches. Problem is, the match is for straight wall pistol cartridges. 38 Special, 357 Mag, 44 Special, 44 Mag, 45 Colt and the like. I tried to talk the match director into letting me shoot a light-loaded 444 Marlin, but no go. He would agree to 44 Special or 44 Mag though. I suppose I could cut off 444 Marlin brass to 44 Mag length and see if he'd go with that. I expect not . . . .

Dimensions off 44 Special and 44 Mag are close to the 444, except for length of course. I'm concerned about the body diameter in front of the rim. The shorter rounds may not feed worth a hoot, there's concern of a carbon ring build up. Rifling twist? Bullet fit?

I have far more questions than answers. Rather than just try it, I'm interested if any of you have tried 44 Special or 44 Mag in 444 Marlin chamber. What did you learn and why would you recommend for/against this hairbrained idea.

Not a good idea. I tried the fit in my Handi-Rifle, and I found 44-40 fit much better. The base diameter is close to that of the 444, whereas the 44 Special/Mag base is somewhat smaller. The rim of the 44-40 is larger, though, so I don't know if it would work in the Marlin. If I were going to try it in my Handi-Rifle (which I'm not!), I would feel safer using the 44-40.

Interesting question so I did a little web surfing. I found quite a bit of discussion about this on the castboolits.gunloads forum. Consensus appears to be that .44 Spl and .44 Mag will fire in the .444 Marlin, but can result in considerable blow-by (gas escaping around the seated cartridge back into the action), case bulging due to the larger chamber diameter, case splits, poor accuracy (attributed to the very long "jump" the bullet must make before entering the bore), and feeding problems in lever actions.

Based upon the reported experiences of those folks I would be reluctant to try this myself.

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Life of the party until 8:00PM

It would blow the shoulder out with the .44/40 wouldn’t it? Might even get some splits in that area. Just guessing.
I do not think .44/40 brass is cheap or readily available.

The SAAMI case and chamber dimensional specifications:

.44 Magnum: Case base diameter = 0.4570-0.005
Chamber diameter = 0.4589+0.004

.44-40: Case base diameter = 0.4711-0.008

.444: Case base diameter = 0.4698-0.008
Chamber diameter = 0.4707+0.002

Looks like the .44-40 case is a better fit in the .444 chamber than the .44 Mag case. So what if it blows out?

I wouldn't worry about the "carbon ring" which is not difficult to remove.

I might guess that the accuracy would be terrible, and velocities somewhat erratic. Freeboring was a concept used by Weatherby, but I am not sure of the distance of the jump the bullet had to make before engaging the rifling. I might think in your case the jump would be excessive.

I do not think I would go down this rabbit hole

Just my .02

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Pete
I ain't no fortunate son

I am of the opinion that 44-40 would do a good job. Since the rims are very close diameters, the extractor will keep the bullet in the center of the chamber.

444 prototype cases were made from 30-40 Kreg or 303 British cases, and they would be an alternative source for brass if you wanted to experiment a little.

If using 44-40, I would seat the bullet our as far as possible!

Ivan

Shoot what the gun is chambered for. Be safe.

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Sal,
SWCA #2768

The best way to find out is to try. I see nothing dangerous about it.

BTW, I once tried using .44-40 cartridges in a .45 Colt revolver. They worked well enough to keep the shots on the paper at 15 yards.

Long ago I strongly considered re-barreling a Winchester Model 1895 lever action to .444 but never actually did it. That is the limit of my familiarity with the .444.

I know a dip-wad that shot 44mags in 444. His cases looked like they were lamp blacked. I wast present when they were shooting but herd he got a face full of hot dirt. On a brighter note he is the one whose research was responsible for the Data that proved a Snake Charmer 410 will not safely handle 444 ammo.

A former boss reported using .45 Colt and .45-70 in a Winchester .45-90 when ammo was scarce. He didn't recommend either, although he was still using .45-70 before the rifle was stolen in the 70s. Even if it would chamber and fire, I doubt it would feed reliably. He had to single load the .45 Colt.

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I need ammo, not a ride.

Why not just get a 44 magnum lever action?

Reminds me of the little .410 that could:


I like adventurous souls that are willing to give stuff a try.

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Rule of law, not a man.

You may have better results resizing 460 brass in your 444 dies, perhaps not.

My .44 Magnum Marlin has a max and min length. It is supposed to feed .44 Special loads, but it is rocky, so I just use .44 Mag brass with minimum Trail Box loads. I would anticipate difficulty in feeding .44 Special or Magnum brass in the .444 Marlin.

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Richard Gillespie
FBINA 102

Op quote " The shorter rounds may not feed worth a hoot , " is a huge understatement ...they will not feed at all ...

Never pass up a good excuse to buy another rifle ... just buy a lever gun that will feed both 44 special and 44 magnum and now you have a rifle for big game hunting and a rifle for fun and targets ...

Trust me ...life's too short for one gun and they never get cheaper !

Post #13 proves idiots are alive and well and still allowed to spread their religion on you tube ... Please stop encouraging them ...idiots need censoring and shouldn't be allowed to breed.
Gary

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Certified Cajun
NRA Member

What's wrong with a little experimentation? It looks like they were pretty safe about it and even if they weren't, I won't be loosing an eye watching it on my computer. I did some interesting experiments with a SMLE 303 and some Bullseye back in the day. The difference was there was no YouTube or cheap digital cameras. Guys soup up lawn mower engines, juice up their computers and do all sorts of stuff that takes things outside of their design envelopes. Why not guns? Check out the guy from Demolition Ranch on YouTube if you want to give yourself a nervous breakdown! I was particularly in awe of how well a HiPoint stood up to barrel obstructions.

I have an idea that might be nuts but maybe not. How about you cut down th 444 Marlin case to 1.285" which is the case length of the .44 Magnum? Then load the case with .44 Magnum load data and call it good. I'm fairly sure that will be match legal. Aka the match director before you cut cases of course.

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Freedom is never free!!
SWCA #3437

As an expirement long ago I shot 2 1//2" 410's in one of my 444's. Terrible pattern and if you held your finger on the extractor it would eject them.

As others above have stated. Best to use the proper cartridge for said firearm.

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S&W Accumulator

Thanks for the wide-ranging and varied responses. Of course, it's best to use the cartridge marked on the gun. And I've never been shy of "justifying" another gun! But I really like the old Marlin I have and wanted to try it out in competition. I already use a 38/357 lever gun in the match and it's just "spiffy." Something different is appealing, though.

I've always been an experimenter, but if I can learn from others' experiences first, I'm a step ahead of myself. I figure the biggest risk to trying my hairbrained idea is blowback and soot in the action or my face. I hadn't thought of the 460 S&W. I will check that one out dimension-wise. Could be a 460 S&W with Trailboss could do the trick. This is all about convincing the match director that I'm using a pistol cartridge. Never mind that the 460 S&W is more like a "cannon" cartridge, it might just convince him.

If I do try to go down this path, I'll share the results with you. Then you can all laugh at my idiocy or stand in awe of my creativity! Hah!

Get your gun and handloading information from YouTube and lower your IQ all at the same time.

As one experimenter to another I would try experimenting with .44-40 brass. There will be no blowback as 38-40 and 44-40 were designed as a blackpowder cartridge. They have thin walls that seal the chamber and prevent bp fouling. It would have to be loaded singly I’m sure.

The 44-40 is likely the best choice for off the shelf ammo,,if there is a 'good' choice for doing this.

Another thing to explore and it'll tell you very quickly if it's do-able or not..

Many 444Marlin chambers will accept a 45Colt (Long Colt) case.
Some will not as the 45Colt base is ever so slightly larger than the 44-40.
Worth a try I think.

If it does, you can neck down the 45Colt case to 44cal. Seat and crimp a .429 bullet and fire it in the 444Marlin chamber.
You will be doing pretty much the same as what the 44-40 rd is doing for you.
You will end up with a straight blown out 45Colt case for your efforts.
45Colt brass is generally cheaper that precious 44-40 brass.
Many have 45C brass around, at least some of it.

Call it the 44-45 Marlin & Colt.

I'm really amazed at the number of folks here that are in the, "try it, what could go wrong camp". See post #9.
Freedom of expression carries responsibility and that is a duty that is regrettably becoming scarce.
To the OP, Shoot what the weapon was designed for and stay safe.

Really a waste of time and ammunition. If you want short action rifle. Buy a Marlin 1894 or Henry..........What you are proposing to do is like putting a Volkswagon engine in a Dodge Hellcat. Might work but results are dismal.

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S&W Accumulator

all these things that you are talking about are the beginning of getting reloads banned from being used in this competition. The cutting down a case won't fly because they use head stamp to determine cartridge. Altered case with improper to cartridge case head stamp??? This is internet BS that will end bad for competitions meant for a certain playing field. Follow their rules.

I like my 444 Marlin too much to do any of these experiments with it. I have been using it since the early "70's and it has never even had factory ammo fired in it. Mine is the older 24 inch barrel with a Monte Carlo stock.

Looking at this from another perspective. Imagine that YOU were the range master and this was presented for you to decide.

unqualified firearm
altered ammo
possibility altered case
ammo not for the presented firearm incorrect head stamp

What would you say?

He can't do that because the requirement for the game is a straight wall cartridge. Just tlike hunting in some states; Shotgun or Straight wall pistol cartridge only. Once the cartridge is altered to a shouldered case it's off limits.

If you want to cut down 444 brass they are north of a dollar each if you can find any replacements. An absolutely wonderful caliber.

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Where we go one, we go all