Just bought a Marlin .444S maybe from the early 1970's...

[dogngun]

Does anyone know how to date Marlins from the SN? This one is 250321xx, has the front barrel ring, pistol grip and no cross bolt safety. It's in very fine shape...belonged to the store owner (He had 6 of them) and he took great care of it. Got it for $450.

I have had one before, along with a .45-70, several .35 Rem's and about a half dozen in .30-30...I like the Marlins.
Thanks for any help.

mark

[6pt-sika]

Your gun was made in 1975 .

$450 sounds like a decent price . I've sold several of mine for that price or a bit more in recent months .

[dogngun]

thank you!

I ordered a set of dies for it, and I see there are a lot of new loads/bullets available for it since the last one I owned...about 30 years ago.
This could be fun!

mark

[6pt-sika]

My suggestion is shoot cast only !

Use plain old wheel weights for alloy and water quench them , Size at .432" .

Depending on what you wanna do with the rifle you could be well suited with a copy of Ranch Dog's 240 , 265 and 300 grain molds . If you wanna go a bit on the "wild" side find a copy of Ranch Dog's 350 grain offering !

To be honest if you had those 4 molds the only one you really need to water quench would be the 350 grainer .

Lotta folks like plinking loads which is good and fine if thats what a person wants . I get enough shooting by working on actual hunting full tilt loads .

There was a mold on castboolits for a 434-207GC which i happen to have . That one would make an excellent plinking bullet and I have used it to kill several deer when pushed a good bit harder .

Now if you don't wanna cast there are several good jacketed bullets as well . Although I've not messed with jacketed in a 444 in about 8 years .

Best of luck !

[6pt-sika]

On a side note !

Be aware the Hornady Leverevolution ammo has brass thats a bit shorter then standard Hornady brass or Remington brass .

I suggest buying only Remington brass and you have no worries or issues .

[6pt-sika]

Incidently the 444S was first made in 1971 . The 444S with barrel bands were only made from 1971 to 1975 hence yours was made in the final year of barrel bands .

At one point I had atleast one for each of these years in this model and they all shot nicely .

I have since sold all of the 444S I had and gone exclusively to the 1964-1972 444 with the straight grip barrel bands and monte carlo stock with 24" barrel . Well thats not entirely true I do have a rifle from 2001 that has the 1-20 Ballard rifling so i can shoot the 390-420 grain cast bullets .