444 vs 45-70

[Bayou Boy]

Killed another deer with the 444 Thursday morning. Dead on facing me at 75 yards. His head was down eating my $8/bag corn so I had to stop that! LOL! I ended up shooting him right between the shoulder blades with his head down. Hit him like a sledge hammer. Dead right there. I recovered the bullet when I was skinning him out. It traveled all the way down him on the inside and stopped, bulging the skin at about his testes.

It expanded from the 44 caliber to about a 72 caliber and maintained all it's weight. I would have no qualms about shooting one at 200. It's a hammer!

 

[cnodie1]

Lets see that bullet man! Its interesting to see those kind of things.

 

[hunter5567]

They usually have no problem stabilizing the 300gr bullets depending on the length of the bullet. I beleive the H&R's are 1:20 twist anyways and will stabilize even heavier bullets.

 

[hunter5567]

I bet that was a mess to clean. My buddy shot 2 deer this past weekend with his 444 and leverevolution ammo. Blew some big holes in them.

Killed another deer with the 444 Thursday morning. Dead on facing me at 75 yards. His head was down eating my $8/bag corn so I had to stop that! LOL! I ended up shooting him right between the shoulder blades with his head down. Hit him like a sledge hammer. Dead right there. I recovered the bullet when I was skinning him out. It traveled all the way down him on the inside and stopped, bulging the skin at about his testes.

It expanded from the 44 caliber to about a 72 caliber and maintained all it's weight. I would have no qualms about shooting one at 200. It's a hammer!

 

[SAATG]

Are you trying to figure out which caliber to get? Any of the shelled rounds are a huge improvement over true muzzle loaders so you should be happy with all.
The 35 whelen i believe is the lowest caliber that you can use for the primitive weapon breaks in MS and has the best ballistics --- short and long yardage. The heavier bullets 444 & 45/70 dont look too good for the longer shots.
CVA apex line will allow you to easliy change out barrels if you so desire. You can get the Apex with a 35 whelen barrel.

http://www.cva.com/rifles-apex.php

The biggest problem you may have is actually finding one in stock at this point due to the popularity of the 35 whelens. Check your local FFLs. If you can't find one locally, contact me through my website listed below. I may still have some in stock.

 

[Cookoff]

You can’t go wrong with either

If you reload, the 444 makes good sense. I use Beartooth Bullets but there are a lot of good bullets in lead or jacketed
Anything from 240 to 300+gr will shoot good. It’s how much recoil you want

A Very Wise person you are, I have reloaded both, and both are very effective....

 

[Bayou Boy]

Lets see that bullet man! Its interesting to see those kind of things.

I'll see if I can figure out how to post a picture. It's impressive.

 

[hunter5567]

If any y'all don't reload and have saved your 444 brass, I'd like to buy them from you. I'll pay 50 cents each for once fired brass. Also need some dies if anybody has any for sale but I can order those or get them from cabelas.
PM me if you have any brass or dies.
thanks

 

[gmshooter]

Hunter 5567 if you are going to shoot the Hornady FXT bullet you will need to get the FXT seating stem Hornady part
# 397117 this help keep from leaving a ring on the bullet

 

[hunter5567]

I found plenty of brass, so don't need any more unless its Remington.
I'll be shooting Hornady 265gr FP and 300XTP. I may try the 265 FTX later on since I'll have some hornady brass. I bought 2 boxes of the Remington 240gr SP since I had a credit at Basspro and they only had one box of the FTX. After reading up on bullet tests using the 240SP Remington, it actually hangs together better than the FTX and not much difference in trajectory out to 200 yards where I doubt I'll be shooting anyways.
the last doe I shot last weekend with the Marlin 338MX was 25 yards away and another at around 80yards with the 308MX.
My buddy shot a doe yesterday at around 60 yards with the 444 FTX ammo.
Guess I'll try them all to see what is the most accurate but want to start loading for it since $35 a box is getting old.
PS I am getting Lee 444 dies in so I don't think the hornday stem will work in it for the FTX bullets.