I picked up a used marlin 444p in good shape used from cabeles maybe 3 years ago. Its the outfitter model with ported barrel. Ive shot a non porter ss guide gun 45/70 for a while but my standard load in it kicks a bit. The 45/70 load is 350g hornady flat point at about 2100fps over benchmark powder.
I got some starline brass for the 444. I noticed I had several cans of RL10x that I hadn't found a use for so I started with it. I also have a lot of speer 270g gold dots that I use in my 44s so I went with those. I ended up with 50g rl10x, 270g gold dot, cci250 and they clock 2200fps from the 18.5" barrel.
Recoil seems light compared to my guide gun and barrel lift is much less. I had to adjust the overall length and seating depth to get the feeding and function good but once dialed in it feeds and cycles very smooth. Looks like it'll work for something.
Bb
