Excellent Starrbow!!! A buddy of mine swears by the tri-ball loads, but, unfortunately they cannot be used here for game that they would be suited to. Another friend swears 410 gauge shotshells can be used in the 444, but, I have not tried that yet. I make shotshells for my 44 Mags (Redhawks) from 444 cases. They hold about a half ounce of shot, and at 10 feet from a 4" barrel produce a very nice pattern. I would guess that about 15 feet or so would be max usable range for vermin, snake, and small game. I would like to play with the authors shotshell data and see what they would do in one of my 444's, and maybe use Speer shot capsules without the "cap" (that would add to the shot charge weight), to see if I could get them to feed from the magazine...............anyway, this article is a good one, and adding to what the author stated, the heavier bullets available for the 444 these days only betters its usefulness and viability as a one gun... all game hunting system.