Win 94's in 444 marlin- heavy loads

[mickbr]

I notice Paco and a few others authors say the Win bigbore was a stronger action than the standard marlins, capable of 50kpSI + , Handling chamber pressure is one thing, but heavy loads can affect other parts of a gun, even shake them to peices. Wondered if anyone has run them hard for long and can relate how the guns went?

[Bill in Oregon]

I'd want a bull barrel on that 94 if running higher-end .444 loads. I briefly owned a Ruger No. 1 in that caliber and found it less than fun to shoot with full-patch loads, but then I have been descending into recoil sissydom for decades now.

[Steve in MO]

I wonder if the new Rossi M95 in .444 would handle the heavier loads?

[mickbr]

Id been wondering that myself. Too short a barrel for my tastes, wastes some of the 444's advantage. Seems every rifle barrel is getting shorter and shorter these days.

[Steve in MO]

Id been wondering that myself. Too short a barrel for my tastes, wastes some of the 444's advantage. Seems every rifle barrel is getting shorter and shorter these days.

Well, my hunting distances are getting shorter and shorter these days as well, so it probably balances out. I'd think that you could keep velocities at the Marlin level safe and still do everything you needed too.

Also, there are a lot of powders available today that weren't around when Paco did his experiments. We might be able to make up the velocity from the short barrel with the right powder selection. Just a thought.

[tray]

I had some Leverevolution ammunition given to me with some rifles so that is what I shot. That seem to be a good match as my big bore 94 is a Timber Carbine with an eighteen and a half inch barrel. It seems a lot lighter than my Marlin 444 rifles so I decided to keep it for Ranch duties where I would usually use a Marlin 1894 in 44 magnum. There have been a couple of people in the past on the Marlin board that claimed their Winchester big bore rifles would not stand up to a steady diet of high pressure loads. I decided to "ere on the side of caution", so to speak. I will also load something in the lower pressure spectrum for that rifle using a cast bullet.
I like the little carbine and don't want to use it with a lot of high pressure loads when it is not necessary. I have some Marlin XTP 444 rifles that have been reworked for that type of use anyway.

[Grizz]

i doubt this is relevant, but many of the shooters who developed the monster pressure guns for the monstrous pressure loads are happily shooting sub 800fps loads these days, but it may be . . .

[mickbr]

Id been wondering that myself. Too short a barrel for my tastes, wastes some of the 444's advantage. Seems every rifle barrel is getting shorter and shorter these days.

Well, my hunting distances are getting shorter and shorter these days as well, so it probably balances out. I'd think that you could keep velocities at the Marlin level safe and still do everything you needed too.

Also, there are a lot of powders available today that weren't around when Paco did his experiments. We might be able to make up the velocity from the short barrel with the right powder selection. Just a thought.

What are all the powders available now that Paco didnt have for 444?