445 super mag in 444 marlin.????

[jdr308]

Hey guys, I had a barrel made for my encore chambered in 445 super mag.. This has proven to be a HELL of a hunting cartridge for me, it drops whitetails in there tracks.. I love the rifle, and was wondering if anyone has fired this in a 444 marlin.? I know guys have fired 44 special and 44 mag through the 444 without a problem and in theory it should work fine but wanted some input from other handloaders. I have tried feeding it through my 444 and with the lever revolution bullets ( which are a little longer) it feeds fine. With the hollow points the oal. is to short and wont feed- the round wants to eject out the top of the rifle.
In my neck of the woods- It has become very popular to cut down 45-70 brass to 1.625 inches ( Thats the maximum case length to be legal for deer hunting ) it fires and feeds fine and shows no signs of pressure. And it nearly matches the velocity of a full length 45-70. Anyway- I thought maybe the 445 would work like the cut down 45-70 rounds but wanted some others input.

[hunter2]

Who made your encore barrel?

[jdr308]

I ordered mine through E Arthur Brown Co. website is eabco.com I am VERY happy with it, I had them put open sites on it will a muzzle break. A friend of mine just got one from MGM. Very nice barrel as well and they had one in stock for him- mine took 3 months..

[helotaxi]

There is a pretty significant case head dimension difference between the .445 and the .444 with the .445 being a good bit smaller (0.015"). There is also a difference (though only 0.003") in headspace/rim thickness. I'd be concerned with case rupture. If I wanted a similar performance in a .444 chambered rifle, I'd cut down a .444 and figure out how to change the taper enough to get the correct neck tension to hold the bullet.