Trying this thread again now that I've got the picture thing figured out......

Years ago I bought a Marlin 30TK .30-30, a relatively rare model of the 336 made for Kmart from 1988-90. Basically they're a .30-30 guide gun with an 18.5" barrel and 3/4 magazine. Wonderfully trim and handy, they seem to have developed a bit of a cult following among Marlin fans. I really liked mine. These rifles were made with lighter barrels and thinner forends than seems to be typical for most variations of the 336. The problem was power, I needed more! I've long enjoyed Marlin lever actions but could never find one which really filled the bill. 1895/guide gun .45-70s were too fat in both barrel and forend for my tastes. The little TK handled great and was a joy to carry but a .30-30 isn't exactly the cartridge I want to count on when hiking salmon streams or blowing a deer call around here. Prior experience with JES reboring made me decide this TK needed sent down to Cottage Grove for re-education to something more suitable.

Research indicated the .444 was a the cartridge for me as it would allow the most bullet diameter out of that svelte barrel contour. Brass and bullets are readily available. When loaded with heavy bullets you get suitable power and have better trajectory than with the .45-70. The conversion involves more than just a rebore/rechamber. Modifications are required to ensure reliable feeding and ejection. The extra work raises the price from his normal $250 to $325. I also specified a 1/20 twist since I plan to shoot bullets no lighter than 300 grains. I sent the rifle off in early December. A mere 17 days later I had it back, no longer a .30-30!



The next concern was wood. The TKs were made with birch stocks. Yuck! One day rummaging through a junk bin at the local gun store I came across an old Marlin forend for $5 and snatched it up. Then I obtained a semi-finished buttstock from Boyds. Fitting the butt was the first job I took on. I got it fitted easily by smoking the metal with a candle to show the contact points and then removing the wood until it fit. Come to find out, the Boyds stock was a bit lacking. Below you can see where they took off too much wood around the front of the inlet where the wood meets the receiver, which caused some gaps. Also, the hole they drilled for the tang screw was off. Oh well, part of the fun of projects like this is figuring out how to solve unexpected problems. One solution to this would've been drilling the hole out to 3/8"s, gluing in a dowel section and then re-drilling the hole. As it turned out however, once I drilled the hole to 3/8" the tang screw was able to line up with the bottom hole just fine. Then I glassed the entire inlet for strength and to fill in the gaps.



Now that I've figured out how to post pics if there's interest I'll keep this thread running with how things progressed.

And you got away from the factory 1 in 38" twist.

I did hear they might switch to 20" on the new 444

When will you be able to shoot it?

I had to get the new wood fitted. I bloodied it a few days ago.

Back in the late 90s Marlin started making the 444 SS with Ballard rifling instead of microgroove and sped the twist up to 1-20", if I remember correctly.

Good choice. I've had the Marlin in 45-70 and 450 Marlin and they're both down the road now. If I feel the need for another it will be a 444.

Dude, that is too sweet. I'd like to see some full-length pics when you get it done.
Nothing like having exactly what you want.

Congrats! What did you shot?

After getting the butt stock fitted it was time to do the forend. This was a special concern for this rifle. There seems to be consensus amongst people smarter than I that the recoil generated by big bore Marlins is just too much for the single screw banded style forend. I found tales of bent screws and split wood. I believed this since the big bores come from the factory with cap style forends rather than bands, and upon disassembly I found the single screw on my rifle had been bent by .30-30 recoil. The remedy was to fit a tenon in the barrel and shape the forend for a cap. I ordered the tenon and cap from Brownells.

Cutting a dovetail is simple and straight forward. The internet is full of helpful videos of how to do it. Regardless, hacking into a perfectly good barrel I just paid good money to have customized was scary! I used a dremel to buzz away the teeth from one side of a triangle file in order to make a safe side. After eyeballing it alot and thinking if over I decided upon a relatively short forend. It turned out it was to be centered on the half round groove the factory put there as a relief for the original forend screw to pass through. I marked out the length of the cut based on the width of the tenon and then filed until the depth down to that of the groove the factory put there. Here it is half way done.



After getting the depth right I used the safe side file to relieve the sides, making sure the work progressed evenly on each side. Once the work progressed enough that the tenon went about half in I set it with a mallet and it was done. Relief!

Next up was hacking some wood. First I cut the old forend to length



Then I had to relieve the wood in order to shape the section which fits under the cap. It was easier for me to do this as a bigger piece than smaller and I wanted to leave myself plenty to work with. I carefully laid out the area of wood to be removed and then made a preliminary cut with a coping saw around the forend. Then I used a rasp to relieve it down to the dimension it would have to be for the section of wood that would be under the cap.The pencil line in this pic shows the thickness I took it down to.



Once this was done I cut off most of what was thinned out in order to begin fitting the cap. This allowed the forend to slip into place and I began fitting the cap to the wood by using the same color transfer method as with the butt stock. This part was boring and seemed to take five lifetimes to accomplish.

Here's the forend nearly in. You can see the holes in the cap don't quite yet line up with the holes in the tenon. You get the idea. Two more lifetimes of color transfer and chiseling and it was fitted.


Next came thinning that chubby thing down. I don't know who out there enjoys these giant forends Marlin put on their wares, but it's not me. It's remarkable how much difference in feel you can accomplish by taking off an eighth of an inch here or a sixteenth there. The first part of this process was determining exactly how much thinner I wanted it and then rasping the bottom down to a level flat in order to create a known. Once that was done I rasped the top of the forend, next to the barrel channel down to its final thickness. Then I rasped another parallel flat on either side of the bottom flat. Only then did I begin rasping the entire forend, rounding things off to join the flats and take them from flat to round. Important! Be sure to leave a smidge of extra wood in order to account for final sanding. You can also see the black acraglas in the wood under the cap. I had to glass bed the barrel channel because the TK barrel is skinnier than the barrel this forend was originally used with. In the process I gunked some epoxy all over the end cap inlet and just went with it.

Come on Bucktail...don't leave us hanging. powdr

By now the end, and killing something with this thing was tangible. In short order I had the final sanding and whiskering done. Normally I would choose an oil finish but in this case I had to get things done and get hunting before the close of the season. After using Art's walnut stain and filler and started finishing with Tru-oil. I'm sure it will serve decently enough. The rifle felt good in hand and the weight was ideal for what I wanted.

To me, a rifle such as this one is at its best equipped with good iron sights. In its former life as a .30-30 I'd equipped the rifle with a vintage Redfield peep and XS front featuring a white stripe. It works well and I couldn't see fit to change things. The only suitable bullets on hand were 300gr Beartooth WFNs and Hornady 300gr XTPs. I'd already researched loads and had ammo loaded. Off to the range! Range day was a mixed bag. Good news: The rifle is accurate with various loads. I shot it at 75 and four shot groups were close to touching with both bullets. Bad news: I couldn't get the chrony to read. Velocity is surely over 2000fps but beyond that I cannot say until I get to the range again.The newest issue of Handloader had a Pet Loads write up by Brian Pearce. Based on his data I settled on H322 for the 300 grainers. Later this year I will try some heavy cast bullets and 300gr A-frames.

I'm suspicious that 2000+ fps will be a bit much for the Hornady to have great penetration. Therefore, when I went sneaking through the woods a few days ago the WFNs were standing by. I got into some great sign at about 200 feet of elevation above the beach and slowed down. After a bit a big bodied deer stood up out of its bed at 15 yards, ran out to 30, and then turned around to see what got his attention. Bad for him, he stopped with enough of his chest exposed for me to get a bullet into him at a pretty steep quartering away angle. With one jump he was out of sight. Let me tell you, a WFN at this velocity leaves a blood trail. I found him piled up about forty yards away. The bullet drove through a very full stomach, holed the lungs and took off the top of the heart. The exit wound was easily 1.5". As he fell.........Capital I say!

Enjoyed following your project wriite up progress with a great ending....congrats on the buck.

Thanks for write up Pabucktail.

Excellent work!

Great rifle build. The 444 is a good one. Yours looks perfect for carrying.

I like it!

Yep... pretty awesome!

Todd

Thanks guys. It was enjoyable, and ending up with the rifle exactly as I want it is just stellar. Recoil is there for sure.By the end of the range session it was evident these loads aren't for plinking. The idea for this rifle is something that will get carried alot and do double duty for deer hunting and bear defense. It's great for one handed carry at the balance point and I'm confident the .444 with good bullets will be up to the task on a bear.

Before long it will get sent off to be hard chromed. After that and finalizing load development we'll be all set.

There is just not much a 444 (I have two) can't put down tons of power nice build congrats. Widow

444 is a keeper! Your craftsmanship is outstanding!

Sherwood

The rifle from this earlier thread has had some metal treatment. I had a local guy Ceracoat the vintage Redfield peep sight and Mahovsky's in Pennsylvania hard chromed it. Chroming took about a month. Ron was pleasant to deal with and I'm very pleased with how it turned out. I'll be sending more work his way. No rusting for the little TK now!

Wow! Nice.

I really like that.

Sweet gun. I love old marlins. What do you figure the total cost was minus your labor?

Nice work, on both the rifle and the deer.

Very nice rifle!

Very nice rifle. I killed my first buck in PA long ago, with a long ago sold 444. Regrets ever since! your rifle is beautiful

The new wood was about $60, rebore and conversion was $325, and plating was $175. Bear in mind I scored the old forend cheap however. The original birch stocks were functional, just horrifically ugly to me.

Great thread - thanks you did a fine job on the ole Marlin .

444 is cool I have one in an H&R and really like it , it's my night hog hunting rifle .

444 cartridge is a rimmed - not necked down 30-06 case - that's why it has survived so many years and will continue to .

Tag

Bad azz

Does anyone have any experience on game with the .444 using cast bullets of 325-350 grains?

Great job !! That was an awesome post, you did great.

Beautifully done, sir.

Very nice rig. Well done.

This is an awesome write up. I have a glenfield 30-30 that needs this same treatment.

Great job and great rifle! I am envious.

Very cool project. Not sure I could've cut the barrel for the new fore end but you did a professional looking job.

Semi-related: I once had an email conversation with (the late) Chuck Hawks -- who was surprisingly friendly and willing to chat -- and he was adamant that the 444 wasn't a bison cartridge under any circumstances. I figured with modern bullets and at reasonable range it would drop a medium-sized dinosaur. But I think to folks who watched people use pistol bullets back in the day, the 444 is just frozen in time.

Thanks. As you say, I think if one's only experience with the .444 was using pistol bullets, they wouldn't think of it as a bison round. With the proper bullet I suppose it would be as good as any other old buffalo rifle.

That really turned out great!
The 30tk's and Glenfield's are the nicest configurations marlin did, imo.
Who did the feeding mods?

That is as good as it gets. Well done

Jesse at JES did them as part of the rebore job. The only thing I had to do was find one of the magazine tubes for the .444/.45-70. They have a bulge in the end that helps the bigger rounds "turn the corner" so to speak and make loading easier. It worked okay with the .30-30 tube, but is definitely slicker to load with the proper tube.

I've owned a 444 for 40 years now....bought it new for $219 in MN in 1981.

Fun cartridge, and effective in northern MN woods... since I started handloading, I slowed it down and went with the 300 grain XTP..

Taking the velocity down to 1850 fps, using SR 4759, I reduced the point blank range by about 10 yds, and reduced recoil a good 40%.
and increased accuracy.. between 150 out to 175 yds, I puts things down right now....

Mine has always been a very accurate gun.....

I bought my 444 in 1974 or 5 and it has been fed a steady diet of 240 gr bullets form day one (that is all there was back then) I love the gun.

That gun is awesome! Thanks for sharing.

I have a rather rough Marlin Marauder collecting dust. After looking over your project, I may go home and see about some improvements.

Great project and awesome work! There is a sense in gratification that comes with doing things your way and an enjoyment in the end result that can't be "purchased".

Thanks. JES provides a good variety of caliber and chamber options for such projects. Let us know if you make a project out of it!