Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles 444 Marlin load

I just saw a guy post his 444 marlin load. Hornady 200 grain with 57.8 of Viht N120 at 2850 fps. How much pressure is this running and how safe is it?

What is he shooting it out of ?

Quickload shows that load getting 2938 out of a 24" barrel. They show that load as an overload in the red at 63160. Max pressure for that cartridge on Quickload is listed at 51488.
Might be OK in a Ruger #1, but I sure wouldn't want to fire it in a Marlin.

He didn't say but a NEF handi rifle probably as that is what our state considers legal for primitive weapon.

Having a Marlin 444 since 1981....

I can tell ya this for fact and experience. he's wasting his time.. Don't know what he is trying to accomplish, but I can tell you ANY bullet for the 444 is so lacking in any aerodynamics, they are like shooting a ping pong ball, attached to a parachute....

Factory loads with a 240 grain, have a max point blank range or about 175 yds and that is with a full load of recoil to it, and a 240 grain bullet., MV at about 2400 fps

I do handloads using SR 4759, at about 1850 fps MV....I have HALF the recoil of factory load, using the 240 grain Bullet, and my max point blank range is 165 yds..... so I give up 10 yds of point blank range, before I have to start using Kentucky Windage....and the lower velocity gives better and deeper penetration, and a whole lot less of blood shot meat than the Remington Factory loads give....

These bullets are designed for the 44 Rem mag originally, and pushed as fast as 2400 fps, they come apart when they hit something at the higher velocity...
at 2900, wouldn't surprise me that you had the entire front of the deer blood shot

For those interested, you can use load data for a 44 Rem Mag pistol in a 444 Marlin case.... and it will yield pretty much the same velocity as a 44 Mag in a Marlin Lever action for that caliber.

I've taken a couple of deer in the yard over the years, with the 444 using a 210 gr XTP, with like 10 to 12 grains of Unique.... a decent 75 yd load and the recoil was almost ZERO, and that XTP dropped them on the spot....bullet was running about 1000 fps out of the muzzle...

I don't think I would want to be close when he's shooting that ......

I'd bet the Marlin would take it.

There's not much holding the bolt on a Marlin locked.
Would be a wonderful experiment to try.

At that velocity the 200 XTP is a varmint bullet inside 200 yards, very soft. Is it a flat-shooter? Sighted in 2.3” high at 100 puts it dead on at 200 and less than a foot low at 300. Not quite a ping-pong ball but not a .22-250 either. At 300 yards it still has over 1000 fpe so it’s certainly lethal at long range. Accuracy, well that’s an unknown…




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I have had a Marlin 444 since about 1975 and as Seafire said above, the factory loaded rounds back then (the only load for them back then) was a Remington 240 soft point. It was a deer killing rig for sure. As he stated, the bullet was intended to run at 44 mag speeds and the 444 added about 1000 FPS to that. I loved the way it preformed on deer so when I started loading for it (about a year later) I used Speer 240 soft point bullets and later Sierra 240 JHP's. Both worked like magic on whitetail deer. I was loading the max load shown in the old Speer green manual of IMR 4198. Still have that gun and still use that load. The 444 is not a long range shooter my any means and sighted in dead on at 100 yards has something like 10 inches of drop at 200 yards.
As Seafire stated above, recoil is there for sure but not unmanageable, but it is not fun to shoot off a bench for sure.

I could see a lighter bullet like a 200 gr XTP being pushed faster, but don't think I would want to. I think someone is trying to make a race horse out of a plow mule.

Just for grins, and because I had several boxes of them I loaded some old (red paper box) Hornady 200 gr hollowpoints up for my Marlin 444. I haven't put them over a chronograph, but the data used with IMR 4198 showed a max load at 2400 fps. I loaded them just to plink with. I can't imagine loading them up another 450 fps faster. For hunting I prefer the now discontinued 265 gr Interlock at 2075 fps or the 240 XTP HP at around the same speed. Either one of those are not bad for recoil and seem to be the sweet spot for accuracy in my rifle.

My deer hunting load has been for a couple decades.... 35 grs of SR 4759 and a 300 gr XTP...

MV is about 1850 fps......