I'm guessing you're looking at the Marlin 1894 and 1895Guide gun, I've got both, 1894 and 1895GS-stainless=real purty.

Here's my take on this: most "camp guns" are employed to protect against animals that can eat you: namely bears, wolves, and cougars. You don't see a cougar coming at you, and it's not going to rummage through your things, wolves aren't going to attack a camp site after people once you show up they'll run if they're rummaging, so what're we left with? BEARS.

You're not going to have time to dump 10rnds from your 1894 if you're attacked by a bear, you've got to make 1-3 shots do the job...which a .44mag probably won't. My choice would be the 1895Guide gun, 5shots of 400grn slugs is pretty stout.

The .44mag is great for "opportunity shots", but as a life saver, it's better to have it in a pistol on your belt, because the long bbl of the rifle doesn't offer anything but a grip for when you're beating a bear off with your rifle.

My personal choice for "Camp defense" is a Tactical shotgun, i.e. Winchester 1300 Defender 8shot 12ga, $333 NEW, load it with buckshot and slugs in a party mix, anything shows up you've got slugs for BIG HITS and buckshot for larger spread...plenty of knock down power too...miss five shots with the .45-70 and you're no better than when you started, buckshot allows for slightly less than perfect aim under pressure.

My advice, honestly is to buy all three, 1894, 1895G, and 1300, the first two are great hunting rifles-the 1895 is a great camp gun, and the 1300 is as much fun as it is practical.