444 Malin in Contender

[Eric N.]

I have a 16.25 44mag that I had rechambered to 444 Marlin.I shoot this both as a rifle and a pistol. Some years ago I came upon a picture of a 444 Marlin with the barrel split as in blowin up. I have put several hundred rounds thu it,factory Remington 240 gr..My question is has anybody seen any more problems such as this? The gun is fun as heck to shoot. There is no question when the thing goes off.You can tell by seeing the 8 in by 12 in ball of flame.    Thanks!!

[dstegjas]

Eric,
If you look hard enough you can probably find a picture of a barrel that has blown apart in most of the bigger calibers. Unfortunately these pictures you see may not tell the whole story. It is my opinion that anytime you are dealing with a unique weapon such as a large caliber in a pistol platform. You need to approach your reloading data more closely as well as monitor the condition of your weapon just as closely. Anytime you ignore these things bad things can certainly happen as you can see by these pictures.


I have owned and hunted with a .444 Marlin 14" barrel for my Contender. I never had any problems with the barrel while I owned it. However I did monitor the things I mentioned above very closely.


Jim

[quickdtoo]

I suspect the 6-hole scope mount contributed to the 444 Contender blow up.

Tim

http://cdk357.tripod.com/444blowup.html