Home Forums Lever Action Central Big Bore Levers 444 or 348

If you already have 45-70's, I don't know what a 444 would get you. It's about 3/4 the power and essentially the same trajectory. Now the 348 would be something different, so that's the route I'd go. But brass availability is a thing these days and not likely to improve anytime soon.

I agree regardin 45-70 and 444. I however, found 348 brass fairly quickly. Bought some here on the fire from Shrapnel too.

From what I know there were 4 model 71s, in .33, 3 in 45-70 and 2 in .308. The 45-70 sold for $45,000 at Amoeskeag Auctions, March 2023

I would prefer a 356 Win

With so many cartridges available it comes down to the gun.
I had a Win 71 and just loved the way it carried and shot. Not ballistically superior to most of my other levers. But high on the "cool factor".
Tax bill forced me to sell it. I still have the reloading gear, just in case.

Took me less than 30 days to find and buy over 500 rounds of new Winchester brass and another 250 once fired Super X. Cost me $400 give or take . Also bought 4 boxes of new factory ammo and 7 vintaqe boxes.

I’m a tad late to the game but I’ll play. Anyway the 348 Win had its place but if it wasn’t for that wonderful model 71 it would have been forgotten long ago. The 444 however has never really been optimized for several reasons. (1); it was down loaded for lever actions requiring flat tipped bullets so 265 grains was the limit for most shooters. That’s still a lot of bullet but trajectory was nothing to rave about. (2); the early factory loads were short heavy revolver bullets (3); bullet casters could size for Marlin’s ‘ Micro ‘ rifling and get heavier bullets but you really needed custom molds, but you still couldn’t shoot spire point or bore riding bullet designs, (4); the Marlin rate of twist was considered too slow at 1-28 for longer heavier bullets. Ackley proved 1-18 or 1-20 best. So anyway this cartridge came with lots of built in limitations not to mention the fact that Bill Ruger’s #1’s and #3’s were never offered in 444. That in itself is a puzzling mystery since the falling block action is so well suited to straight walled cartridges. According to Warren Center ( Thompson Center ) Mr. Ruger was in a pissing contest with Marlin’s management and refused the cartridge. Must have been serious cause after all the years it was never offered. Had a Ruger falling block been offered the factories would have no doubt loaded much more powerful ammo.

Now I have a one of a kind Ruger #3 that my late Brother had Ackley build for him. He was pretty close with Mr. Ackley and was talked into chambering it in 444. It was a project that Ackley wanted to tackle and the deal was he could use it to test with and sell to my Brother for a deal. It’s got a 25” barrel, #4 contour and a 18” twist. It shoots phenomenally holding 1/2” at 100 yds and 2.5” at 200 yards. The big 300 grain Barnes bullets make 2250 fps with a compressed load of H335. Being a single shot, pointy bullets like Hawks become legitimate 300 yard killers. So with the correct rifle, some handloading and decent bullets the 444 becomes a much different animal. I’ve taken two moose ( blown both shoulders out ) and one cow elk with this rifle so I’m sold. Anyway I prefer straight walled cartridges as I’m convince bottlenecks are just a fad

Rick

I recently had a Ruger K1B rebarreled to 444 Marlin. It has a 22" Douglas Premium barrel instead of the Lilja my local smith normally uses. So far I've only had time to run Nosler 240 JSPs through it with a middle of the road load of Benchmark but wow, what a promising shooter. It put 6 rounds into a single ragged hole at 50 yards while I was breaking it in and getting the scope on paper. This load averaged right around 2200 fps. I have yet to see what it will do at 100 yards, or with the Hawk 275 spitzers I've had good luck with in a 44 mag 1885 low wall.

The same smith texted me today to tease me with a pic of the 24" .348 Win barrel, also a Douglas, he put on a No. 1S for me just this week. I expect to get the finished product next week and have a few boxes of the Hawk 230 spitzers waiting to load for it after I try some of the stuff I shoot in a Browning 71. Really looking forward to this rifle since I've been waiting for it for some time.

As somebody said on another thread about new cartridges, if you want to try something, spin a new barrel on a gun you already have. I've had several No. 1s rebarreled for this very reason. None of mine have the pedigree of your Ackley, or course, but they are so much fun.

Good luck with the two. Great cartridges.

My vote is 348 all day long.