444 Marlin Reloading Question?

[win38-55]

I am having no luck in finding 265 grain Hornady Interlock Bullets for my 444p Marlin rifle.
I do have a large supply of Hornady XTP 240 Grain Hollow points. Can I use these
and what are the drawbacks of using them? I am dying to reload for this rifle I just cannot seem to get the bullet I want.
PS: This would be used for deer hunting.

[TedH]

Sure you can use the 240s, but they were not designed for the velocity the 444 is capable of driving them. I don't know the point at which they will turn inside out, but they will stand up to a good deal more velocity than I though they would. I loaded some 240 XTP HP bullets with a max charge of H110 and fired them from my 6" 629 and from my 20" Marlin into wet phone books. I was surprised to find the recovered bullets were darn near identical, and had penetrated almost exactly the same depth, even though the bullet fired from the rifle was going upwards of 400 fps faster. Around 1780 fps from the rifle and 1320 fps from the handgun.





The bullet on the left was fired from the rifle and weighed 222.8 gr. The bullet on the right was fired from the Smith & Wesson and weighed 225.8 gr.

I would be curious to see how (if) they would hold together at 444 velocities. I imagine one would still ruin the day for any whitetail. Another option would be to slow them down to the point where you wouldn't have to be concerned about their performance.

[AJMD429]

Dunno the 240 grain bullet type that Remington uses in their factory .444 Marlin loads, but they SAIL right through a steel gong at 100 yards, so the bullets must not be TOO fragile...



For deer, since a .44 Mag just plain DROPS them at 100 yards, you could either just load to .44 Mag levels (a rather 'light' .444 Marlin load, certainly) and hunt out to 100 yards, or if you're actually going to get shots out at whatever - say 175 yards, figure what velocity you'd have to have at the muzzle to have a 175 yard velocity from your .444 Marlin equal to the 100-yard .44 Mag velocity. Then, the only question would be if that would limit you to NOT shooting say under 50 yards or 75 yards, due to the bullet going so fast it would explode vs. penetrate (still I'm thinking dead deer, but maybe wasted meat).

You hear all kinds of stuff about fragile bullets exploding on the skin and producing non-lethal wounds on animals, but I'd like to see if that REALLY would happen with a bullet as heavy as the 240 gr. .430" pistol bullet going 1800 fps from a .444 Marlin, hitting a WHITETAIL. That seems a whole different situation than the 130 gr. .284" varmint bullet going 3500 fps from a 7mm Mag, hitting a rhinocerous.

We can't legally use the .444 Marlin in Indiana for deer hunting, but with the fast drops and through penetration and little wasted meat we get from .44 Mag 240 grain factory loads out of the 16"-20" lever-carbines, I think the only time I'd want the .444 would be for that 100-150 yard or so shot, which our local terrain really never enables anyway.

Have you thought about using hard-cast gas-check bullets?

[txpete]

I shoot the ranch dog 265 gc here is a good write up on bullets.
pete

http://www.marlinowners.com/forums/inde ... 318.0.html

[Mokwaw]

I don't have the interlocks. But I do have a couple of boxes of old stock (25+ yrs old) Hornady stock# 4300 265 gr. flat pts. .430 dia. One box unopened, the other has 80 bullets left in it. I no longer have a .444 to load for. If that helps and you're interested, I'll take $15 shipped, or trade you for a box of the 240 gr. XTPs. Send me a PM.

Rich