Back to the Big Marlin II

[HAWKEYESATX]

All of those Beartooth’s have shot great. The 290 is like a varmint bullet. Makes the rifle think it’s a 22-250.

Does it shoot pretty flat with the 290? I was thinking of using the same exact profile bullet in 300, 325, 335, and 355.
I saw where a 355gr can be driven to 2100 + fps. That's a power house right there, if it can get those kind of velocities.

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[gerry]

Very cool. My little brother just grabbed one of the newly made Marlin 444's as well and we immediately put a box of the FTX loads through it just to see how it functioned and I was very impressed. It's a very nice looking rifle with good wood and metal, along with the most important, it functioned really well and shot to point of aim at 50 yards.

My little brother is so excited with it, hope you love yours as well. He's throwing an XS sight on top of his for now, and trying out some 270 Speers and RL7. A proven combo in my older Marlin 444 as well.

Great pick and cannot wait to hear how you like yours.

Thank you!
I'm putting a Burris Full Field 1.5-5x on her, and going to see she does with that.
I'm seriously thinking about getting the Speer 270 gr Deep Curl myself, except with H4198, or H335. I've heard good things about RL-7 too.
To start out with, I'm using the 300 gr WLFN, with Starline brass, and WLR primers.
I want to get some factory loads as well, but around my part of the woods, the .444 Marlin Cartridges are as scarce as hens teeth.

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Excellent, love the choice in scope and you have some really good components already. Great to hear Scotty's little bro has a good one too. The only thing stopping me from buying one would be the Marlin guns just don't fit me well and I get pounded with recoil, I'm officially jealous of you guys though :mrgreen: To me the 444's are the classic Marlin rifle and cartridge. Was just thinking about great writers and articles and back in the day Rick Jamison had some excellent ones too on the great old 444

 

[HAWKEYESATX]

Very cool. My little brother just grabbed one of the newly made Marlin 444's as well and we immediately put a box of the FTX loads through it just to see how it functioned and I was very impressed. It's a very nice looking rifle with good wood and metal, along with the most important, it functioned really well and shot to point of aim at 50 yards.

My little brother is so excited with it, hope you love yours as well. He's throwing an XS sight on top of his for now, and trying out some 270 Speers and RL7. A proven combo in my older Marlin 444 as well.

Great pick and cannot wait to hear how you like yours.

Thank you!
I'm putting a Burris Full Field 1.5-5x on her, and going to see she does with that.
I'm seriously thinking about getting the Speer 270 gr Deep Curl myself, except with H4198, or H335. I've heard good things about RL-7 too.
To start out with, I'm using the 300 gr WLFN, with Starline brass, and WLR primers.
I want to get some factory loads as well, but around my part of the woods, the .444 Marlin Cartridges are as scarce as hens teeth.

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Excellent, love the choice in scope and you have some really good components already. Great to hear Scotty's little bro has a good one too. The only thing stopping me from buying one would be the Marlin guns just don't fit me well and I get pounded with recoil, I'm officially jealous of you guys though :mrgreen: To me the 444's are the classic Marlin rifle and cartridge. Was just thinking about great writer and articles and back in the day Rick Jamison had some excellent ones too on the great old 444

I had forgotten about Rick Jamison and his articles on the Marlin 444! He was another one that got me really interested in the .444 Marlin.

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[gerry]

Yep he had at least one good one in Shooting Times back in the late 1980's including some bullet tests. He showed that the 265 gr Hornady would be tough to beat for a lot of different game especially deer and bear.

 

[HAWKEYESATX]

Yep he had at least one good one in Shooting Times back in the late 1980's including some bullet tests. He showed that the 265 gr Hornady would be tough to beat for a lot of different game especially deer and bear.

I fully agree with you!
From what I understand, that 265 gr FN Hornady will take anything on this continent. That's good to know.
Not that I'll be doing any Griz hunting in the near or distant future. But if I'm hunting elk in Griz country, I won't be in the least bit detoured with using it.

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[HAWKEYESATX]

What diameter did you order

I'm using .429-.430 hard cast lead gas check bullets.

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[gerry]

I would have zero issues hunting anything in North America with those 265's it's going to do a lot of damage on a grizzly or moose or elk before it comes to a stop. In theory a heavier bonded core might be "better" but in practice I doubt you could tell much difference.

 

[HAWKEYESATX]

I would have zero issues hunting anything in North America with those 265's it's going to do a lot of damage on a grizzly or moose or elk before it comes to a stop. In theory a heavier bonded core might be "better" but in practice I doubt you could tell much difference.

Yup, I think the Hornady 265 FN and the Speer 270 gr Deep Curl will be the bee's knees for the .444 Marlin.
Can I shoot hard cast lead without a gas check?
I saw that Bear Tooth has the 260, 270, 280, 290 gr bullets. They're all hard cast, and pre-lubed.
I'm really liking the selection from Bear Tooth a lot.
Plus, if the 290 gr shoots like a champ, that may be my all around load coming up.

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[SJB358]

All of those Beartooth’s have shot great. The 290 is like a varmint bullet. Makes the rifle think it’s a 22-250.

Does it shoot pretty flat with the 290? I was thinking of using the same exact profile bullet in 300, 325, 335, and 355.
I saw where a 355gr can be driven to 2100 + fps. That's a power house right there, if it can get those kind of velocities.

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I mean flat it relative honestly with the 444. It shot plenty fast enough for a couple inches high at a 100 yards making a couple inches low at 200 yards. All of them would be plenty reasonable to 200 or better with some practice.

There are so many good Bullets out there for it. We have kinda settled on the 270 Speer and the 280 Swift’s. Dewey had excellent results with them and they’ve been very accurate as well. I think if I could hold myself to one the 280 Swift would be my one bullet.

 

[FOTIS]

The280 swift is an awesome bullet. A little expensive but awesome.

 

[HAWKEYESATX]

All of those Beartooth’s have shot great. The 290 is like a varmint bullet. Makes the rifle think it’s a 22-250.

Does it shoot pretty flat with the 290? I was thinking of using the same exact profile bullet in 300, 325, 335, and 355.
I saw where a 355gr can be driven to 2100 + fps. That's a power house right there, if it can get those kind of velocities.

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I mean flat it relative honestly with the 444. It shot plenty fast enough for a couple inches high at a 100 yards making a couple inches low at 200 yards. All of them would be plenty reasonable to 200 or better with some practice.

There are so many good Bullets out there for it. We have kinda settled on the 270 Speer and the 280 Swift’s. Dewey had excellent results with them and they’ve been very accurate as well. I think if I could hold myself to one the 280 Swift would be my one bullet.

I'm not rich enough for the Swift 280 gr, but I can do the Bear Tooth 280 gr bullet all day long, so that might be a happy middle.

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[SJB358]

Honestly that 270 Speer is a sleeper on the budget and performance. Check out Lanman in our Bullet test section. He’s worked my 444 pretty well down in Florida.

 

[rjm158]

I bought and loaded some Speer 270's that I shot out of my 1970 .444 with a 3-9x scope. It gave me groups of an inch +/- at a 100. I haven't shot anything but paper with it but I hope to perforate a deer with it this fall.

Ron

 

[HAWKEYESATX]

Honestly that 270 Speer is a sleeper on the budget and performance. Check out Lanman in our Bullet test section. He’s worked my 444 pretty well down in Florida.

That's awesome!
I remember the .45-70 having a 300 gr Speer bonded bullet, and that one was a sleeper too.
I'm glad they are, because once they're found out, there goes the supply for a while.
I'm seriously considering the Speer 270 gr FN Deep Curl, because you're not the only one to mention them.
Plus, you get it zinging at 2200 fps or a little faster, and it's a Force to be reckoned with, I figure.
Hard hitting out to 200 yds, and what more can you ask for?

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[HAWKEYESATX]

I bought and loaded some Speer 270's that I shot out of my 1970 .444 with a 3-9x scope. It gave me groups of an inch +/- at a 100. I haven't shot anything but paper with it but I hope to perforate a deer with it this fall.

Ron

Please, by all means, shoot more things than paper with those! Let us know how well they work.

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[SJB358]

Honestly that 270 Speer is a sleeper on the budget and performance. Check out Lanman in our Bullet test section. He’s worked my 444 pretty well down in Florida.

That's awesome!
I remember the .45-70 having a 300 gr Speer bonded bullet, and that one was a sleeper too.
I'm glad they are, because once they're found out, there goes the supply for a while.
I'm seriously considering the Speer 270 gr FN Deep Curl, because you're not the only one to mention them.
Plus, you get it zinging at 2200 fps or a little faster, and it's a Force to be reckoned with, I figure.
Hard hitting out to 200 yds, and what more can you ask for?

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The easy part with mine was load work up consisted of loading a couple charges, they all shot the same so I picked the fastest, zeroed and off I went. It seems to shoot everything great.

 

[HAWKEYESATX]

Honestly that 270 Speer is a sleeper on the budget and performance. Check out Lanman in our Bullet test section. He’s worked my 444 pretty well down in Florida.

That's awesome!
I remember the .45-70 having a 300 gr Speer bonded bullet, and that one was a sleeper too.
I'm glad they are, because once they're found out, there goes the supply for a while.
I'm seriously considering the Speer 270 gr FN Deep Curl, because you're not the only one to mention them.
Plus, you get it zinging at 2200 fps or a little faster, and it's a Force to be reckoned with, I figure.
Hard hitting out to 200 yds, and what more can you ask for?

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The easy part with mine was load work up consisted of loading a couple charges, they all shot the same so I picked the fastest, zeroed and off I went. It seems to shoot everything great.

That's what I remember Craig Boddington, and Layne Simpson saying, that whatever load they used, be it factory, or handloads, the Marlin 444 shot them all very well.

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[HAWKEYESATX]

I finally got the whole set up together.
Bought the one piece scope mount, mounted the 1,75-5 power Burris Full Field scope. Put the hammer extension on. And she's bore sighted, ready to go to the range.
Now all I have to do is whittle up my loads, and see what she likes.

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[DrMike]

Looks good. That should scratch the itch for a larger bore size, and it will work very well on game.

 

[HAWKEYESATX]

Looks good. That should scratch the itch for a larger bore size, and it will work very well on game.

Thank you!
I quite agree with you DrMike!

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