I acquired this rifle from a old friend. It had been leaning in a corner for years collecting dust with my eyeball on it . Now I have it and Damn it hurts to shoot the
Thing . Marlin 444s 1980 model like new with the thin red recoil pad .
What to do ? Muzzle break , dead mule , recoil pad ? I love magnum rifles
Big fan of 7mm stw up to 338 Rum and none of these bother me to much but this thing pops my neck everytime I squeeze the trigger and that's just a total of 3 times . Explains why it was in the corner and looked new after the dust was knocked off . All I have for ammo is hornady 265 gn performance. Maybe hand load 250 nosler?
Your opinions please.

Hand loads. Light. Then enjoy it. Lever guns have a stock shape that can make shooting uncomfortable for many.

Let me know how light you wanna go

Are you shooting from the bench or offhand? They are better for shooting offhand with. I wouldn't port it or use a muzzle break because I hate the noise they create, but that's me. You might look into putting a better recoil pad on it. Either a Pachmayr Decelerator or a Limbsaver pad is what I'd recommend. I prefer Pachmayr only because I've heard that Limbsavers can sometimes get gooy sticky over time, but they have a great reputation for taming recoil. The Hornady load isn't that stout, but it is a little more so than the Remington 240 grain load so you might try that if you don't handload. You can also try shooting with a shoulder pad or bag of shot when at the bench in the meantime until you can get a recoil pad installed.

TAC and 240 grain XTPs.

Try the strap on PAST pad. Leave the rifle alone. Works great for me.

Thank's Guy's
I have been reloading for 29 years but have never loaded for a straight wall cartrige so this will be new to me . The only three rounds I fired were free hand . Thanks for all the info. I will give it all some thought.

and if not post it up for sale here ,someone will buy it
No sense keeping something you don't like to shoot

I shot a friends 444 once and it really does come back at you. Not sure if its the relatively quick burning powder as par of it but you are chunking a pretty healthy sized bullet. I would put a good pad on it but probably the best thing you could do to reduce recoil is add weight. Just some lead in the butt or one of the mercury recoil reducers the shotgun guys use. You could hollow out the forend to add some balancing weight too.

I do believe I will post it up for sale tomorrow and move on to something else.

hate to see a 444 go good bye... I have one I purchased in 1981.... and its always been a tack driver...

I can tell anyone who loads for one, that if you use 44 Rem Mag Data for say a lever action.... in the 444 case, it will still give the same muzzle velocity... if mine is an example...

so if someone wants lighter 444 loads... 44 Rem Mag or 44/40 data will work just fine...

I've tried a lot of different of those loads thru mine and never experiences a disappointment...

low and slow: http://www.gmdr.com/lever/lowveldata.htm

Good idea, better than ruining a nice rifle by modifying it. Sometimes the reality of something isn't what the fantasy was.

It's funny because I found my new 444s a pleasure and fun to shoot

I better tell my wife to quit shooting her's, it's way to much gun for a woman...





100 yds, 270 gr Speer Gold Dot

Nice wood!

I have one of these on my 1895 Cowboy, 45-70

http://www.kick-killer-recoil-pads.com/kick-killer-slip-on-recoil-pad-with-lace-up-closure/

I also have about 1/2" of extra spacer hidden inside to increase my lop more. That and the way the leather on the butt end wraps around makes the pad wider than the stock buttplate,which helps to spread the recoil over a wider area and makes it hurt much less.

I use 240 grain SWC over 12 grains of trail boss. Pretty decent accuracy out to 100 yards and virtually no recoil. A nice feature of TB is if you accidentally doublecharge a 444 case, you'll be hard pressed to seat a bullet in a case that's nearly overflowing with fluffy powder.
As for the full throttle loads- definitely an aquired taste.

Get some Trailboss powder & some cast 240's....get to know the rifle

then graduate to heavier loads...I sold my Marlin 444-P a few yrs

ago..kind of miss it.....but still have a '95 GS Guide in 45-70

Hornady 265's were made for the 444........

I love shooting mine. But Im like the monkey mounting the skunk. I dont get all I want just all I can stand.

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.

Rebarrel it to 356, and move up in life. LOL

Almost the same, but a 45-70 in a Guide Gun. A pleasure to shoot with 405 grain slugs and factory Rem ammo (like 1,230 fps). Decided to hop it up to around 1,760 fps with hand loads. Holy Moly! That was a mistake. Need to find someone to shoot up the last 85 rds for me.

Either lighter slugs or be happy with a little less velocity. Should still drop anything living in North America.

Shot some handloads my dad loaded with a 420gr cast bullet @ 1700fps in a lightweight Ruger #1.....my 375H&H is more comfortable.....

I own this beautiful rifle now. It loves 265 Superformance ammo. I put a nice Skinner peep and brass front post on it. I will do my best to take a nice buck with it this year.

T4