I've had 44 mag and owned various 45-70's from the 1970's until about 10-12 years ago when I sold the last one. Never had a 444 but it is just a faster 44 mag which will mean more useful range. The 45-70 is over rated. Until you get into the nuclear loads that exceed 375 recoil it won't do anything a 44 mag won't do. And if I'm dealing with that much recoil I'll take a 375 every time. There is nothing I'd hunt with a 45-70, with any load, that I wouldn't feel better with a 30-06 in my hands with heavy for caliber bullets.
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I’ll take issue about the .45-70 recoil and effective range vs a .44 Mag. In an 9.5 pound rifle, a .375 H&H will generate about 44 ft-lbs recoil when pushing a 270g bullet to 2700fps. A lighter 8,3 pound Marlin/scope 1895 pushing a 325g FTX bullet to 2150fps generates about 32 ft-lbs recoil. A Marlin 11894 .44 Mag weighing about 7 pounds with as cope will generate about 13-1/2 ft-lbs pushing a 240g XTP to 1800fps.
At 7000 feet altitude (my standard elevation), a MPBR zero for a 6” diameter target and a range of 300 yards, the .44 Mag is down 37” with 22” drift, 1169fps and 729fpe. Same conditions, the .45-70 is down 20” with 16” drift and retains 1456fps and 1529fpe. Pick a different bullet for the .44 Mag and its numbers often get worse, not better. If we use 1500fpe as a rule of thumb for comparison, the .44 Mag is about a 120 yard elk rifle while the .45-70 reaches out to 305 yards. That’s a significant difference.
