bigbulls

444 Marlin vs. the 450 marlin is along the same lines as com0paring the 300 Win mag to the .338 Win mag.

What you can do with one you can do with the other.

400 - 500 more foot pounds of energy going to the larger cartridge and .029 - .030 inches in bullet diameter going to the larger cartridge.

handloader1

I would go with the .450 Marlin. Good luck.

sam 444

I've been shooting and reloading my 444 for over 30 yrs. With the right load it will kill anything that the 450 marlin will.

gobuffs

I went with the 45-70. Light loads are available anywhere (Rem, Win etc.), heavy loads (similiar to 450 Marlin) are also available to non reloaders from companies like Buffalo Bore and Garrett. Both 444 and 45-70 are very capable rounds at relatively short ranges...and you don't generally buy a lever action rifle for the bean fields... so then it comes down to how big of a hole do you want to make?? For me it was a 45 caliber hole and the history of the 45-70 with tons of available ammo...

Love the marlin 1895 BTW.

gobuffs

To see what a hot loaded 45-70 can do, check out this link to garrett cartridges....
http://www.garrettcartridges.com/lupoindex.asp

Vince Lupo took the the big six with a Marlin 45-70 and garrett hammerheads!!!!

1shotkill

i would choose the 450 i have read nothing but good articles on the marlin 450 magnum. the marlin is my opinion the best lever action arms producer to date i tryed a winchester in the 450 caliber but the top ejection port and cheap peep sights made the gun a bad choice. the marlin has a side port ejection system and good deep cut sights mounting a low variable scope on this rifle would be a good combo. on the other hand the 444 is a nother good choice both are excelent large game cartridges. the 450 has a devisating amount of foot punds.