I have a 1976 vintage 444 that I bought new and have killed tons of whitetail with it. At that time it was the only gun Marlin offered with a factory recoil pad. At that time about the only factory ammo was from Remington and it was a 240 SP bullet.
That is all I ever loaded for mine was 240 gr bullets, never saw the need for bigger.
Mine loves IMR4198 with Speer or Sierra 240 gr bullet. I have never seen but one deer take a single step when hit by one of these.
Recoil is not like a 243 but nothing like the 265 gr stuff that is out there.
Never saw a 240 bounce off anything out of my gun.
