The 444 Marlin cartridge was introduced to the public in 1964 in a collaboration between Remington and Marlin. The 444 Marlin cartridge is a semi-rimmed, tapered, straight-walled cartridge that is an excellent short to medium range rifle round.
It is capable of taking all of the north-American game animals within its big bore range capabilities.
Marlin introduced this new cartridge in their ever popular model 336 lever action rifle design which featured a 24″ barrel and a very slow 1 in 38″ rifling twist rate.
The Marlin 444 rifles today have a twist rate of 1 in 20″ to better stabilize heavy bullets.
444 Marlins are notorious for their outstanding accuracy potential, allowing shooters to try a whole host of different bullet weights and designs till they find one to their desire.
Remington originally factory loaded the 444 Marlin with a 240 grain soft point bullet to 2,400 feet per second with 3,070 foot pounds of energy at the muzzle of a 24 inch barrel.
Today Remington offers a soft point bullet with a ballistic coefficient of .146 loaded to a velocity of 2,350 feet per second with 2,942 foot pounds of energy at the muzzle of a 24″ rifle barrel.
Either load gives good ballistics for the 444 Marlin out to 150 yards for hunting in north America with a remaining bullet energy of 1,334 foot pounds.
Hornady has been making ammunition that boosts the performance level of many old favored cartridges and the 444 Marlin is no exception.
Hornady’s 444 Marlin 265 grain flex-tip bullet in their LeverEvolution ammunition line sports a ballistic coefficient of .225 and is loaded to a velocity of 2,325 feet per second with 3,180 foot pounds of energy at the muzzle of a 24″ rifle barrel.
This gives excellent ballistics for the 444 Marlin out to 250 yards for hunting in north America with a remaining bullet energy of 1,344 foot pounds.
Note: Hornady’s patented Flex Tip (FTX) bullets are safe to shoot in tubular magazines rifles.
Push the link to see a comparison of the 444 Marlin and the .45-70 Government.
444 Marlin Ballistics:
This 444 Marlin Ballistics Chart shows 240 grain Remington Core Lokt Soft Points fired from a rifle with a 24 inch barrel:
| Muzzle | 50 yds. | 100 yds. | 200 yds. | |
| Velocity: | 2,350 | 2,072 | 1,815 | 1,378 |
| Energy: | 2,943 | 2,288 | 1,756 | 1,011 |
| Drop: | / | + .3″ | 0 | – 9.4″ |
This is 444 Marlin ballistic chart shows Hornady 265 grain FTX fired from a rifle with a 24 inch barrel:
| Muzzle | 50 yds. | 100 yds. | 200 yds. | |
| Velocity: | 2,325 | 2,144 | 1,971 | 1,654 |
| Energy: | 3,181 | 2,704 | 2,286 | 1,609 |
| Drop: | / | + .2″ | 0 | – 7.5″ |
Next, check out our comparison between 444 Marlin vs 450 Bushmaster.
Good stuff