Must also endorse the .45-70. I bought the full size 1895SS with Ballard Rifling a couple years ago for $369 at a local BassPro Shop. It is my rifle of choice for short range deer hunting in the thick woods of northwestern Wisconsin, a role for which it is superb. With properly handloaded ammo, any difference in trajectory compared to the .444 becomes academic within its likely range of use, while offering superior terminal ballistics.
The .444 in factory form appears impressive energywise, but the standard 240grn bullet really lacks sectional density and expansion control for game larger than deer and black bear. I'm sure many elk and larger game have fallen to the same bullet, but 405grn hard cast bullets at 2100+fps are quite confidence inspiring. Since you don't hunt, this may not be a big concern, but should you ever call on it to repel rogue elephants or pesky light vehicles some degree of tough target penetration might be desired.
My Marlin is frightfully accurate at 200yds (longest distance I could shoot on paper) with irons or the little Burris 1.5-4x scope. Magazine capacity is one less than the .444, but its a non-issue thus-far since I've never had to shoot anything more than once. Deer are broken down as though they were pole-axed.
Price around a bit...anything higher than $400 is too much.
