Umm ya you're really not supposed ti shoot 44's in the 444 very dangerous. That being said the 444 was my first big bore levergun and opened a new world to me, thus my handle on here. I had great results with the 270gr speer gold dot. Try some hardcasts from Beartooth bullets if you really wanna hammer something! And as someone mentioned marlinowners.com is the place for info on marlins of any kind.