Fuel Implosion Vaporization & Heavy .444 Marlin Loads
[4 May, 2003: Gary Clayton sent me email claiming that Mr. Caggiono has been "taking people's money and never communicating with them again." Buyer beware.]
Privacy Alert Memberships is where you can order Privacy Alert by Vin Suprynowicz or just read his weekly columns. If you get a paper subscription, you get access to the web archives and the weekly columns. Vin no longer allows others to print his new articles, as I did for quite a while (I have a rather large backlog that I may eventually get around to posting).
Marshall Stanton at Beartooth Bullets - .444 Marlin - America's Most Versatile Big-Bore - some good info on my new rifle. Looks like the barrel needs to be fire-lapped in order to get good accuracy from cast bullets. Also, it needs .432" (cast) bullets. It can stabilize bullets up to 405 grains. The article has a chart of loads for bullets from 325 to 405 grains with an assortment of powders, including Varget, my favorite for the .223 Rem, though some other powders get more velocity from the .444 without sacrificing much accuracy. I picked the .444 over the .45-70 because it would cost less to buy bullets. Looks like there are other good reasons. This article is in three parts. Follow the links at the ends the first two parts. Beartooth Bullets bills their product line as, "The World's Largest Selection of Premium Hand-Cast Bullets." Added to my Arms Manufacturers page. [J.E. Andreasen]
First off, let us address the perennial .444 vs. .45-70 argument! This long-lived topic of controversy is just about as balanced as the .270 vs. .30-06 feud. The .444 will never throw as large a piece of lead as the .45-70, and using paper ballistics, the .45-70 will always appear as a cartridge with more muscle. Too, the emotional pull of a cartridge over a century old still doing it's job in the game fields, (better today than ever before), sometimes clouds sound reason and judgment when taking an objective view of the .444 Marlin. What most writers, and shooter's compare, are the factory ballistics of the .444 and the .45-70. To the handloader, both cartridges change complexion entirely. When loaded with only factory 240 grain ammo, the .444 appears to be at best a 125 yard deer cartridge. However, when loaded with 300+ grain bullets to well over 2,000 feet per second, and those projectiles having ballistic coefficients of .239 and greater, the .444 Marlin becomes viable 200+ yard elk, moose and big bear medicine to the extreme! (We will look specifically at these types of loads in Part II of .444 Marlin-America's Most Versatile Big-Bore) The intent here is not to settle the comparison between the two, show one superior over the other in performance, but to finally allow Marlin's Triple-Four to stand in the lime-light on it's own merits, and not in the shadow of the .45-70, and to demonstrate the truly more versatile character of the .444 over the .45-70 in a most definitive fashion.
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The .444P Model from Marlin has two advantages going for it in regard to recoil. First is Marlin's excellent, most effective barrel porting, and a better than average factory recoil pad on the straight stocked but of these short rifles. When I first fired mine, I had installed a receiver sight, and selected some of my more tried and true handloads developed for the .444S, and went to the shop range equipped with targets, ammo, rifle, earmuffs and a twenty-five pound bag of shot to protect my shoulder. I dutifully made all preparations at the bench and downrange then grimaced as I gently applied pressure to the trigger, anticipating the inevitable pain this light, short handy little carbine would unleash on my shoulder and cheek-bone. First shot, not too bad, so I went ahead and shot for a group with the gun, as the first shot was reasonably on target at the initial 75 yard shot. Interestingly, after shooting the fourth shot of a five shot string, I noticed not only a nice neat cloverleaf on the 75 yard target, but that the forend wasn't even rising off the sandbags! I went ahead and fired my fifth and final shot to finish out the group, using the bag of lead shot between the butstock and my shoulder, did a sight adjustment and changed the target. My next five shots were fired without the sandbag, and whoa, it didn't wallop me any more than a stout loaded .30-30 carbine! I laughed out-loud! The porting on this short barreled Outfitter is amazingly effective. I'm sure the recoil pad helps as well, but the main improvement is the porting Marlin is using on these guns. After sighting the rifle to zero, using my favorite load with our 335g LFNGC bullet at over 2100 fps out of the Marlin, I shot forty consecutive rounds at targets 200-250 yards away off-hand and in nothing more than a T-shirt! No discomfort and no subsequent bruising! This rifle is FUN to shoot with any load! Now, this neat little compact model .444P has taken first place in my most useful and fun lever action rifle. I'm afraid that the original .444S will be awfully lonely during most hunting seasons.
A word about the porting on the .444P model here is in order. Many muzzle-brakes and porting processes make the firearm obnoxious to shoot, even in the field hunting without hearing protection. Some brakes, like the BOSS system used on both Winchester and Browning rifles have actually caused permanent hearing damage to shooters with only one shot fired in the field from a prone position without hearing protection. My curiosity about this highly effective brake in this regard was quickly satisfied. I fired about half a dozen of the above mentioned forty off-hand rounds without hearing protection for the sake of satisfying this question. The truth is, that I could detect no higher noise level from the short ported barrel of the Outfitter model than with the same load fired from the standard .444S with 22" barrel. However, the noise level to bystanders not standing directly behind the shooter is an entirely different story! The amount of blast perceived both by others as well as myself when someone else was shooting was very harsh, and incredibly loud, even with muffs on, when compared to standing in the same exact position when the traditional non-ported model was fired. Do not allow anyone to stand to the side of these ported barrel Marlin rifles when firing, either at the range or in the field, as permanent hearing impairment could take place in just a shot or two! The good news is that when hunting in the field, it is highly unlikely that you would have someone in such close proximity at your side as to cause hearing damage, and the noise level transmitted to the shooter is no more than that of non-ported models.
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Sure, we all know that there are tons of venison harvested annually with much less gun than the .444 Marlin. After all, there's only so much penetration and killing necessary on a skinny little whitetail deer! However, there's something very reassuring and special when heading afield with the confidence KNOWING that you can take ANY animal offered, in ANY situation, from ANY angle with complete and total knowledge that when you pull the trigger, the game's over! Also a satisfaction knowing that regardless of the tough angles, that you have both the power and precision bullet placement at your disposal for a clean, one shot kill on any game you hunt in North America. Those of us afield in places where grizzly and moose are commonplace appreciate that reassuring knowledge that our rifle has more than enough potential for any situation that may occur. Big heavy bullets with wide, flat meplats dictate consistently deep penetration, large wound channels and guaranteed exit wounds. The familiar 336 Marlin or 94 Winchester platform for these guns insures quick handling, instinctive shooting and intuitive pointability. Couple these proven handling characteristics with outstanding knock-down power and accuracy, and you've got the recipe for years of satisfying and successful hunting success.
I installed my Wild West Guns (WWG) ghost ring rear sight and Bear Proof Ejector™. I didn't replace the front sight with the WWG red light-pipe yet. I sorta like the factory front sight. Haven't fired the rifle since it came back from Marlin. Soon.
L. Neil Smith at The Libertarian Enterprise - ... But Who Wants to Live in an Institution? - America's institutions are collapsing. Yay! [tle]
I've called the time we've just passed through the "War Century", filled with the biggest, most powerful governments humanity has ever suffered, and, as a direct result, the greatest amount of slaughter, some of it in this century's massive wars, some of it simply because governments had more power -- almost -- than they knew what to do with.If I were to characterize my lifetime (so far), from 1946 to the present, I'd call it the Age of Collapsing Authority. When I was born, people held a favorable opinion of western governments in general, of the American government in particular, of institutions within that government like the Senate and Supreme Court, and of banks and large corporations.
Libertarian Enterprise - Letter from Alan Hutch - a response to a Sierra Times article in which Sheriff Mike Cook bemoaned the fact that he is not allowed to carry a firearm on an airplane. Mr. Hutch noticed that it's Mr. Cook's own damn fault. [tle]
Carl Bussjaeger at The Libertarian Enterprise - Practical Property: Intellectual Property in the Real World - some interesting ideas about how copyright should work. [tle]
L. Neil Smith at The Libertarian Enterprise - A Note of Thanks - an informal report on Neil's attendance at Bubonicon, a Sci-Fi convention in Albuquerque. [tle]
James J Odle at The Libertarian Enterprise - Review: CRASHMAKER: A Federal Affaire - Mr. Odle likes this book, enough to nominate it for a Prometheus Award. [tle]
"Given their record, do you really want politicians and bankers such as Allen Stillwell to control the quality, quantity and distribution of money? Do you really want Allen Stillwell in charge of your family's financial future? Or do you want to protect yourself and your children by taking back your country, before Allen Stillwell commits some colossal blunder that blows the bottom out of the markets? If you think carefully about it, you'll agree with me that, for everyone's financial security, America needs an immediate, complete, absolute, and permanent separation of bank and state!" [page 519-20]
CRASHMAKER: A Federal Affaire, by Victor Sperandeo and Alvaro Almeida, (c)2000, Sheridan Books, Inc., Chelsea, Michigan, Library of Congress Catalog Number 99-93805, ISBN: 0-9671759-0-9, Hardbound, 2 volumes, 1572 pages. Available at www.crashmaker.com.
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Be warned! This is not a book for simpletons! For in CRASHMAKER we sail the high seas of global finance and economics with ports-of-call in Constitutional and natural law, monetary history and policy, environmental wackoes, conspiracy theories and the role of morality in daily life. Frankly, to do a proper job of reviewing this tome requires an advanced education in law and economics. Undaunted, I will proceed with my own amateurish efforts. As the authors themselves put it, "CRASHMAKER challenges the reader - in its themes, its characters, even its style and vocabulary. But by design. For any people capable of self-government deserves and demands something more substantial than politically sanitized intellectual pabulum." (Pgs. iii-iv)
