bought mine in 1981 brand new for $219 at Mills Fleet and Farm in Minnesota...
first time I ever took it out to sight it in, was up north of Hibbing, and went out to where we hunted way before season....nailed a 'target' on a pretty decent sized pine tree, say 40 to 50 feet high...
put the first shot and it was too the left of the bullseye... adjusted the scope to the right and shot again,
Still to the left of the bullseye...adjusted again, and shot a third time, dead center bullseye...
Was using Remington 240 grain factory ammo... shooting off the top of my Volvo wagon for a rest...
after that a slight breeze blew thru... the tree that was used to hold the target was 75 yds or so away... started to wobble.. a little stronger gust of wind, and the entire tree fell over...
three shots side by side had blown a hole thru 2/3s of the tree from side to side, and all the way thru the back thru line of travel for the bullet...
I was amazed to say the least... called it my logging gun after that...
use to impress my deer hunting buddies on properly placed shots on trees, could cut them right down...
never saw the need for a 45/70, although my buddy Keith had to go one up on me, and bought one...
first deer I shot with it, was that season... at about a 100 yds, a buck came out on a drive on a snowmobile trail..
saw me and turned away.. so instead of taking the Texas heart shot.. I aimed above the tail and at the base of its neck...it had only taken a few running steps when I pulled the trigger...hit its spinal column and turned the lungs into a bowl of spaghetti...
biggest deer I ever shot was in the winter of 1984, at 30 below... a big buck kicked out of a swamp drive...he field cleaned at 265 lbs...as he circled around the tree I was shooting from ( an uprooted one, that a storm had blown over and I was sitting on the roots about 20 feet up in the air).. at a distance of 75 to 80 yards, when I fired, he had just cut behind a sapline 4 or 5 inches in diameter...
the 240 grain bullet, cut the sapling in half...hit the buck in the lungs and exited on the oft side...
the old 444 is a highly underrated and underappreciated gun and caliber...my handloads are with the 300 grain XTP....
but for off season fun etc, you can use 44 Rem Mag load data.. the kids especially have fun blowing holes in trees in the woods, with a 180 or 200 grain XTP traveling at about 1000 fps...recoil is like a pop gun...
I admit to preferring the 300 XTP over the 265 FN...
the other thing I've notice, those bullets have little aerodynamic capability.. like shooting a parachute...
but I can throttle the MV back to 1750 fps or so, instead of 2250 fps and you give up about 15 yds point blank range and that is it... while reducing recoil by half...
my most common load is 30 to 35 grains of SR 4759 and a 300 grain XTP at 1750 fps...if its within 150 yds, its toast..
