In that case, there's a good chance that you won't like shooting the .444 much at all. The rifle is essentially the same weight as your 336, and the .444 starts off with roughly 50% more muzzle energy than the .30-30. The recoil calculator at http://www.handloads.com/calc/recoil.asp claims that the .444 will produce about double the recoil energy (21+ foot-pounds) as the .30-30 (10+ foot-pounds) for two sort of generic loads. For that calculation, I used:flynbenny wrote:... I am concerned about the recoil- I know my 336 chambered in .30-30 has a pretty hefty wallop....
For the .444: Bullet weight = 240 grains; powder weight = 45 grains; muzzle velocity = 2350 fps; rifle weight = 8.0 pounds
For the .30-30: Bullet weight = 150 grains; powder weight = 35 grains; muzzle velocity = 2300 fps; rifle weight = 7.0 pounds
The rifle weights were taken from the Marlin web site, adding an allowance for a scope. You didn't say whether this was the 22-inch barrel model or the "444P" with an 18.5-inch ported barrel. If it's the latter, the recoil will be a little more (it's a little lighter than the 22-inch model) and the noise will be a lot more (and even the 22-inch model is a whole lot louder than your .30-30).
The right thing to do, of course, is to try to borrow it for a range trip to see how you like it.