For several years the only handgun I owned was my SBH .44, college, marriage, buying a home, kids all were more pressing than amassing a collection of handguns. Redhawks hadn't been invented, 29's were very hard to find & were 4 times as much, the Ruger was an obvious choice for me. While in college I had an RCBS Jr press in my dorm room & the dorm director kept the Ruger, I managed to shoot every week, a lot with Special level loads and learned to shoot rather well. A couple of times I thought I might have to use it for serious business, it didn't come down to that, but I was quite confident my 1000 fps SWC's would have worked just fine. If I had it to do all over I'd do it exactly the same. The .44 Magnum is indeed a most versatile cartridge.
