Congrats SCGunNut, you done good. That rifle is pristine and the wood to metal fitting looks to be excellent judging from the photos. Like you, I prefer no checkering and no cross-bolt safety. My only personal nitpick is, I've never really liked white line spacers. An article I read about the 444 back when I was in high school captured my imagination and so my first rifle purchase was a .444 Marlin with ballard rifling. It has checkering and cross-bolt safety. Later, I purchased a first year produced 1965 444 Marlin. Still have both.
Now you just have to get some brass which has become scarce. Maybe you will luck out and find some locally. It can be rather pricey on gunbroker. Here in Texas, I had not seen any factory Remington 444 ammo on the shelves for several years. However, I saw five boxes of it on the shelf at Gander Mountain a few weeks ago for a mere $55/box
. Despite that high price, maybe the presence of it in the store is an indication that Remington may have caught up on some of the ammo backlog and will perhaps resume making seasonal runs for cartridges like the 444 Marlin and 35 Rem.
