Home Forums Lever Action Central Big Bore Levers Big.bore 94 in.444 marlin with full magazine and wood stock

I.just got a Winchester 444-full stock big bore 94 .It has the cross bolt safety don't.like that .I hope it Will.shoot 300 grain bullets .I.heard these hare way stronger than marlin.444 rifles I want a laminated stock.and larger lever for it too .I can't wait to shoot.It will be fun !

Pics or it didn't happen Sounds cool..........

Can't get pics on my phone and it's on its way to my gal.I want to.try a bunch of 300 grain bullets in it .It holds seven in.the magazine .It only weighs 7 pounds .I am.going to put a limb saver slip on.pad on.it they work awesome on my 405 Winchester 1895 teddy Roosevelt rifle.This might be alot faster shooting.in.the timber than my Ruger 77 338 win mag but it's a 150 yard rifle maybe 200 with lever evolution ammo or bullets reloaded hotter than factory .The Winchester big.bore 94 is higher pressure rated than the marlin 444 'I finally have an Ohio legal deer rifle too .I can't wait to shoot.It will be a blast for sure .

My Win 444 Timber Carbine will not cycle Hornady ammo. Neither the Lever Revolution or the SuperPerformance, both are too long for the loading gate in the Timber Carbine.

Hi gerry35,
If you do switch out the stock, I might be interested in the current one depending on how it looks.
Thanks, Les

My Timber carbine will not let a wide meplat bullet at normal COL make the turn through the loading gate.
Wide meplat bullets like the Lee 310 grain bullet will load and cycle at 2.530".

Hopefully this gun will.use regular ammo all I can do is try it .I am probably reloading.most a the ammo that will be shot in it ! It's coming.with 50 rounds of.loaded ammo so we will see .

Way stronger? Where'd ya hear that?

I have the same rifle, have only shot 265gr Hornady LM in it but it us very accurate with that ammo. I find the recoil to be quite a bit less than expected, although that may just be me. I thought my buddies Marlin with 240's hit me quite a bit harder. I bought mine new and unfired, found it had a feeding issue where a cartridge would be allowed to slip under the lifter when the action was worked, locking it solid. Managed to fix it, need to get some dies for it and shoot it a lot more.

I have the Timber Carbine as well as the Standard model Big Bore .444, and both do great with the 300 grain Speer UniCor as well as the Hornady 300 grain XTP. Just hang on to your retinas, as recoil is stout in a 6 1/2 pound rifle.

RE 7 and H-322 are my favorite powders for it.

For jacketed bullets the 270 grain Speer Gold Dot is hard to beat. Good balance of weight and length.
If you are hunting average size whitetail - say 160lb or so bucks and 120lb or so does don't rule out the bulk Remington 240 grain jsp. 75 yards or so the 240's put deer on the ground quickly with a bit less exit wound than I prefer.

With powder selection it is fun to compare extruded and ball powder. Hodgdon 322 for example putting out a ball of white light with the 300 grain bullets. IMR or Hodgdon 4198 putting out a tongue of red flame 6 inches or so long. Very noticeable in the receiver sight or the Weaver K-2. My K-2 has a 5 minute Lee Dot.
Anyway, take a look at different powders on gloomy days or early and evening light.

I.am.wondering If aa1680 powder will work .I.developed tons of loads in my 357 maximum and 375 Winchester with it .It always shot very accurate and highest speeds .I will try it on lighter bullets and work up .Yes it gives blast too but works I can't wait to use the 300-grain bullets should be pretty good if they shoot good in my rifle .I think.this was a good edition to.my.battery .

Having problems with rounds hanging up???....send it to a Lever gunsmith...solution is just a bit of milling on the ejection port and or a bit of polishing on the barrel extension hood...and have it worked on to handle longer rounds...again...simple to do and money well spent and a bit better performance.

AA 1680 will work...check out several reloading manuals as there are many powders in that burning range and more info is better...you can also use data from 450 Bushmaster and 50 Beowulf for the same bullet weight as ALL of those cases have similar case volumes as the 444...~65-68 gr H2O...or somewhere close.

I shoot bullet weights from 200 to 320, flat nosed, pointy and gummy bears, cast, jacketed, swaged, whatever...in my 444 and use RL 7 as it has produced the highest velos and best accuracy. Hornady's online data has some very good information for free.

My Marlin weighs in at ~9+# with three rounds, one up and two down...I see no reason for any more...in the short tube, scope & mount/sling. If you put the bullet where it belongs you shouldn't need more than 2 anyway...not dissing anyone who feels the need for a 20 rnd mag.

ALL rifles...whether lever, SS or bolt...are rated for the SAAMI 444 pressure specs at minimum plus safety...think about it....bolt guns MIGHT have a higher SAAMI pressure rating...or lower depending on the receiver brand and when the receiver was actually milled...I won't get into THAT ball of worms AT ALL.

I have many large cal rifles from 40 up and my 444 takes down game...within it's intended range...just as effectively as my 458 mag, 50-90 or 50 cal wildcat.

Good hunting with yours.

From Paco Kelly: http://www.leverguns.com/articles/paco/444.htm

The Marlin is a fine leveraction so I’m not comparing good verses not good. I’m rating strength to withstand pressure over a sustained life time of active shooting with each design. The Marlin is rated at tops 45,000+psi and the Winchester 94 Big Bore (that’s the fatside action, not the common action 94) is rated at 55,000+psi. And that’s a big difference.

Something about an aluminum bolt, that doesn't inspire confidence.

Desertroakie...you need to re-evaluate your statements as they are patently incorrect...all you need to do is look up the SAAMI specs on that site to see what the specs are for the cartridges available now and in the past for both the Marlin and the Win AND which receiver types were used.

For a direct example the 444 Marlin is SAMMI rated at 51488 Pmax (MAP) on QL AND several other authoritative sources...look it up.

I'm not about to get into a protracted argument nor publish ANY pressure/velo/load data over ANY of this data...I've been at this game WAAY TOO long to publish any data that some newby will use INCORRECTLY and get his cojones in a vice. I also think that statements on the 'net that cause pain or injury should be treated just like any other injurious act...WE ALL SHOULD BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE!!!

The internet is famous for misinformation, disinformation and totally incorrect statements and give me the REDAZZZ continually and all that krap gets continuously repeated over and over. This same "strength of..." issue has been wrung out ad nauseum, ad infinitum on several forums including this one over the past umpteen years.

You can see the effect by the litigiousness of today's world and by comparing reloading manuals of 40-50 years ago with today's FOR THE SAME CARTRIDGES...that will certainly open your eyes.



ALUMINUM BOLT??????? You need to expound a bit on that...WHICH rifle and model????

Good hunting.

I.am.fixing up.that rifle to be awesome .I.got the hammer extension on it ,the sling on it ,higher scope mounts so you don't see the iron sites in the scope hate that ,I took off the 1x3,power weaver scope and put a 3x9 Nikon monarch on it ,I.put a limb saver recoil pad on it .I want a bigger loop lever on.it but that will come later .I.have to get more bullets for it .I.might try hornady lever evolution too see if it's all its cracked up to be .I found loads to 3000-fps which.I will start at 2500 for the 225 grain hornady bullet for fun .I.have a few 300 grain hornady bullets will.see if they work .I chat wait to shoot it will be lots of fun .I.like to shoot water bottles it's a blast .I.can't tell out at 100 yards what it does to deer .I want a 200 yard load for this gun I.often shoot deer that far .I think.I.Will drag out my elk hide sling.to put on it that is 40 years old .Hopefully all goes well and it makes a fine mountain.bear gun too and should be awesome for hogs ,

Do tell.

None of those were my statements as to the strength of the Marlin v. Winchester. They were of Paco Kelly's. I guess I should have placed his statement in quotes to avoid confusion. Paco seems to be an expert, and I trust his statement as to strength advantage of Win over Marlin.

I know I went way above the normal loads in my Winchester big.bore 94 .It has a large amount of free bore in.the chamber .I couldn't get pressure with aa1680 like you.would think.that would happen .I.never saw flattened primers or stretched brass .I.got 2400 fps with 220 grain.hornady flat nose and went above that no pressure .I know that that are super strong for lever guns way stronger than normal model 94 Winchester rifles .I will go.slow loading.up.with.this 444 as always .I.have seen.some super high loads for these guns but the recoil will be the limit here most likely .That's why I am starting.with lighter bullets and see how fast they can go safely .I do want to try the 265 grain.hornady I have been told it's awesome made for the 444.I can't to shoot this gun .Hope I.can get some 250 yard loads out of It we will see !

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