Hello all, I have a marlin 44 mag lever gun that I would like to shoot in the pistol caliber class of lever gun silhouette. is 44 mag acceptable in the pistol class or do I have to shoot in the rifle class? club rules I read say 22LR to 45 LC for pistol class. but rifle rules read center fire .25 cal and larger with rimed case. im new to the lever gun side of the game.
thank you
Scott

The 44 mag is legal in Australia and our rules align with the US pretty much. You should be able to find exact rules on the NRA website.

The .44 mag is fine for pistol caliber and some use it for the rifle match as well. The only worry is that you might damage a target - slim chance. You don't want your .44 mag to damage the pistol targets... shoot lead boolits and you'll be fine.
And you can shoot the same rifle in the rifle match - I shoot a .45 Colt in both matches and it gets a rainbow-like trajectory ay 200 yards, but a hit has never failed to take a ram down.

I started shooting Lever Action with the .44 mag in both pistol and rifle a number of years ago. I used light loads for PC (8 gr of Unique with 200 gr lead) after seeing other's rifle loads beat up the targets. I did not find that load to be very consistent and know others who also had problems with light .44 load accuracy. I now use a 25-20 and .357 for PC. I do use the 44 for rifle (240 gr lead with 21 gr of IMR 4227)

I've used a .44mag for pistol caliber since I started on '08. I download so I don't damage the targets and shoot a 180gr JHP at 950 fps. Almost ALL factory loadings would be way too damaging.

It's very accurate and the best I've shot with it is a 38/40. Still looking for that 40!

Phxshooter, what kind of bullet drop are you looking at from 40m to 100m with your 44 loads?
thank you
Scott

Scott,

With the chickens being zero, the rams are at 55 clicks or 11 minutes up at 100 meters. That is on a Williams sight. That's 2-3/4 rotations. It still hits the chickens HARD (but not hard enough to damage) and has never failed to knock down a ram that it hit anywhere with a half bullet or more and I've had my share of edge hits over the years.