The problem with the Win ported TC in 444 Marlin or 450 Marlin is it has a terrible stock design for the recoil it produces. It always amazes me that you are shooting cartridges that can produce 40-50 ft-lbs of recoil on a light carbine with a crap stock made for a rimfire based lever gun. Even with porting (porting is not the same as a brake) it kicks like a mule. In 450 Marlin with heavy loads it would be downright obnoxious.
I have a 444 Marlin Black Shadow 20” barrel that I completely restocked with a nice heavy custom walnut silhouette (shotgun style) butt stock and new fore end stock with kick-eez recoil pad. With 1-12 twist it handles the heaviest (355 grain) projectiles very well and is as accurate as a bolt gun. Adding some weight and recoil mitigation it now feels like the big bore hunting rifle it was intended to be in lieu of a toy. Again most big bore lever gun stocks are designed to accommodate looks in lieu of shooting and handling functions, especially in the big bore cartridge offerings. The designs always profess light weight carry, which is wrong headed and does not consider true handling of such potent cartridges.
I think you could still fetch $1,300-$1,500 for it. After all it’s one of the last Winchester lever guns produced in the USA at their New Haven, CT plant.
