Jed, I had a marlin outfitter briefly in that caliber with the ported barrel. A friend sold it to me to buy the winchester big timber carbine in 444. When he got the winchester to his house and worked the action and trigger he realized he made a big mistake and I sold the 444 back to him. If you use it and handload use 300+ grain bullets and it should hit like a ton of bricks. This guy shot a 300 lb hog in NC with it and it did a pretty impressive job on it. Recoil was moderate and it is a very accurate rifle with or without scope sights. Nice smooth action and a great trigger.It is an easy gun to carry and It shoots big holes in things and would be the "perfect" black bear gun IMHO.