Handi Rifle 444

Ian

Ian

Notorious member
They aren't making them anymore, so depending on your point of view it could be priceless. Or worth half that much.

The 444 doesn't get much attention and is an excellent cast bullet cartridge depending on how the throat is cut. If all else fails you can have it stubbed out to a different caliber pretty easily.
 
fiver

fiver

Well-Known Member
if you can get brass for it the price sounds reasonable.
you can run them up and down the velocity window pretty far, one thing to check is many of them had 430 or even 431 barrels no big deal to us but something to be aware of.
 
C

Canuck Bob

Active Member
My go to hunting rifle was the 444 Marlin with the 38" twist MG barrel since the 70s forward. It was an outstanding game rifle and cartridge. My longest was a moose at 175 yards with 265 gr j bullets.

The Handi twist is 20" twist and probably cut rifling using Marlin tooling. They called it Ballard Rifling when promoting the 444 levers so equipped. This allows heavier bullets to be used but I consider the sweet spot at 265gr. The early MG barrels were good to 300gr. I was very fond of the 444 loaded with 265 Hornady FN bullets, devastating but didn't destroy half the meat. Ken Waters called the cartridge a modern American Express cartridge as in a big bore mid weight bullet cartridge of good velocity aka some early SS and levers.

Edit: good review from my bookmarks http://www.realguns.com/articles/553.htm
 
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