"Big Bore" is a relative term. It must be remembered that at one time a 50 cal was mid bore and the 45s were small bores. Coming out of the era of the 58 Rim Fire and the 58 caliber muskets, the 50-70 was "small" and the 45-70 was called a small bore too. In the African hunting world the invention of the 450 Nitro was indeed a small bore when it started making inroads into the world of the 8 bore and the 6 bore.
Here is a big bore............... Unless you have history in the military and in the field of artillery.
[Linked Image]2 Bore muzzle by Steve Zihn, on [bleep]
2 bore.
3,500 grain ball.
1650 FPS.
So your 600 nitro is a small bore in comparison to this. I can use the barrels I make 600s from as ram-rods to LOAD this rifle.


But as for the capabilities of the 444, I can speak to it a bit. To start out, I must say I have never personally hunted with one myself, but as the former CEO of Cast Performance Bullet Co, I sold several million bullets to others that did so a lot, and I had a large file of reports on how they worked on game up to and including American Bison, Grizzly Bears, Elk, Moose and many kinds of African Game.

And I do hunt with 2 friend who use the 444 to a large extent and I have personally seen elk, bear and moose killed with them as well as 3 bison.

The 2 bullets that were most successful were the 300 grain WFN CG and the 320 grain WFN GC. Back in the 80s and 90s Marlin didn't seem to have a standard way to cut their lifters in all their 444 rifles, so some would not feed the 320s and others would. All of them could be modified to feed them, but many men only bought the 300 grain bullets instead so they didn't have to bother, and I didn't read any complaints about how well they killed game.

The problem I have heard from some hunters with factory ammo is the face that ALL the ammo loaded for the 444 in it's first 20 years was actually loaded with revolver bullets. So Schewe does have a valid point, but it's very dated. They killed deer sized game very well, but penetration was less then it could be.
Hornady took a large step in the right direction with their introduction of their 265 grain bullet, but the real magic of the 444 was only seen when it was loaded with hard cast bullets with wide meplats and loaded to a C.O.A.L. that would feed. With such loads the 444 does a LOT more then it did in it's infancy. Full penetration through American Bison in the 1700 to 2200 pound range is common.

The 444 is over shadowed by the Lever Action Marlin (and now Henry to some extent) rifle. The 45-70 will use bullet as light as 300 but can be used with bullets up to 550 and most Marlins feed fine just as they come. So the 444 is not going to dethrone the 45-70. But that is not to say the 444 is somehow a weakling.

That is parallel to saying a 308 is not capable of killing elk because the 375H&H is more powerful. Somehow the elk I and many others have killed with their lowly 308s are..............well...........still dead!



Last edited by szihn; 05/19/19.