Hunting Hogs

[browningautorifle]

a 444 Marlin

That'll do it...

[Sapper740]

One of my older brothers carried a 444 Marlin for deer and black bear when he lived and worked on the Queen Charlotte Islands (now Haida Gwaii). It was the perfect rifle/cartridge combination for the thick Salal thickets you encounter on the West coast of B.C.

[CINDERS]

My 444 Marlin story;
When I was a farmhand up north of our state I was checking the house windmill to ensure it was pumping correctly as I had just repaired it after a cockeyed bob had come through which had the lift rod bitter & twisted plus fan blade damage, I nearly had no water in the house tank but it was beautiful drinkable soak water.
Anyway it was a fair way from the house and I was in a LWB landrover well body with the half door windows out so having ascertained all was well with the windmill I set about part B) of the job to shoot a roo for some reason I took the 444 instead of my PH 22/250 possibly thought I may get a bush chook instead.
So on the way back I see what I thought was a rock above the stubble but it turned out to be a 'roo feeding just the right size for some roo tail soup & pet food so switching the landie off I coasted to a stop on the fire brake and prepared the rifle to do the business.

Now here is where the thought train gets a bit awry as landrover doors are notorious for squeaking and just making a racket when opening them so not wanting to spook the prey I decided to fire from inside the vehicle with my back braced against the drivers door firing out the passengers side window !
So bracing my left leg on top of the gear box tunnel on the floor with my left elbow just behind my knee which was not ideal, rather uncomfortable but was the best I could do, at this juncture hoppy has decided what the heck is that sandy coloured thing doing there!
So with the range I estimated to be around the 130-150M roo angled facing me I let the crosshair travel over his head then when I reached just under his armpit level on it's chest I let drive a 240gn Hornady FBHP at the max loading of 2,400 fps for 3070 Fp/Me. (Hornady Handbook Vol II loading 41.8gns 4227)

Well a couple of things quickly became apparent firstly the was this enormous concussion of noise which made me deaf with ringing ears, I then became aware that every bit of fine dust in the cab rose as one and I found myself in a veritable dust storm inside the cab.
I had hit the roo after the dust cleared with me gaining some composure but man my ears wow it was bad, what had I done well that was simple the Marlin was a short L/A and I simply left the muzzle inside that small 2 door cabin when I fired the thing yeah it had a fair amount of muzzle blast with full power loads, it was not a rifle to pour ammo though.
Mine had the micro grooved bore which I reckon was a good thing bit more fiddly to clean but that rifle was deadly up to 180-200M I shot a roo once on the hop he was at around 40M with the same load hit him broadside on his left level with his arm pit as he hopped.
Fired, it dropped like a stone, upon inspection the Rt arm was completely torn from it's body with most of the chest cavity emptied of it's contents that rifle was just plain nasty both ends.

[Sapper740]

Even at that range it still hit with authority! Great story but I figured after reading halfway I was sure you were going to tell us that the scope was looking over the door but the bore wasn't and you put a .429" hole in your Land Rover's door! I had the 444 Marlin's younger brother, the Marlin Model 94 chambered in .44 magnum which I purchased to take to Cowboy Action shoots as it was convenient to have the rifle and handgun chambered for the same cartridge. In a little bit of gamesmanship I loaded the rifle with .44 Special so as to be able to get one more cartridge in the tubular magazine.