Crap. I was gonna deep-six this thread but jwp475 called me up on the phone and persuaded me otherwise. But this commentary is not relevant to the OP on this thread so bear with me for going along with the hijack.
First thing: I never said you can't run a SA gun fast. I just said you can run a DA gun faster, especially one-handed. And one-handed is the emergency default mode for any handgun. The two guys I mentioned earlier who survived bear attacks did so by firing their DA handguns with the strong-hand only, multiple shots. It was all they could do to hang onto their guns, and if they had had to move their thumb to cock the hammer they both said they would have lost the guns... they had their handguns in a phuqin' death grip.
Years ago a friend and I did timed 5-shot runs with two handguns: my Ruger Bisley .45 Colt, firing 300 gr handloads that I had chrono'd at 1300+ fps, single action; and his Taurus Raging Bull, firing 300 gr handloads at 1300+ fps double-action. We were both very comfortable with both guns and with firing a LOT of HEAVY loads at that time. Bottom line, we could get 5 shots off single action in low 3-seconds, but DA we were both able to break 2 seconds. I don't recall the times for one-handed firing exactly, but it was something like 12 seconds for the SA gun and about 4 seconds for the DA gun.
Second thing: regardless of how much folks may like their .44 Magnums, the plain fact is that a .429 caliber has to work a LOT harder for its ballistic supper than does a .454, .475, or .500 caliber handgun. The pressures generated in the .44 are simply higher, and the smaller bullets don't do the same work as the bigger bullets of greater caliber.
The other plain fact is that most people can't tell the difference in performance between a .44 Magnum and the bigger calibers, because they can't handle the recoil of these big handguns to the point of expertise, and so have no real basis for comparison. There is no shame in this; I have had to hang up my heavy loads in the past several years, because my arthritis in the base of my right thumb simply won't let me shoot them any more. But when I could shoot them well, there was no doubt in my mind that the bigger hammers pounded nails way better.
But to return to the OP's point... the real advantage of the .45 Colt is that you can load it to moderately warm velocities for various modern handguns and it will serve you very well for hunting and/or defense, without blowing up your guns or your hands, and without beating your joints into powder. Just following the simple broad guidelines I posted several days ago, and following some judicious loading data from any credible source will get you where you want to go.
As jwp just pointed out, a heavy .452-.454 bullet at 1200 fps will significantly outperform a 250 gr bullet at 1000 fps, but without significantly greater "pain penalty" in recoil, in a properly set up revolver such as a Bisley or a M625 with good grips. Is the extra performance worth it? Not really, unless you need it, in which case it's well worth the price of admission. Which is why I'm happy to carry a M625 Mountain Gun or 5" Ruger Bisley with 300 gr WFN's @ 1200 fps as my hunting sidearm.
