Very underrated cartridge IMO.
Going by original loading for old time frail revolvers its a popgun (but accurate by all accounts) and took a definite backseat to 45 Colt.
Loaded to its potential its pretty serious.
Two modern aspects - as a defense round, you can shoot 200 jackets grain hollowpoints in the 1000 fps range. And .44 fits in small revolvers that .45s can't.
As a field round you can push 255 grain hard lead in the 1000/1100 fps range. Not the equal of .44 Magnum but pretty effective just as it is.
I've carried a S&W 696 5 shot L frame with factory Gold Dot 200's for self defense, and a S&W 624 N frame with hard cast 275's over 17 grains of 2400 in the woods. Thats a hot load BTW - I am NOT recommending it to anyone. Again, IMO both were good choices for their relative purposes.
Funny story - many years ago I bought an odd Super Blackhawk. It was very nicely factory polished blue like the old models but new enough to be transfer bar. I think of it as some sort of transition model. Some fool had filed a sloppy "dovetail" notch in the front sight and squeezed a piece of plastic rod into it. Maybe weed wacker cord. I took it home, trued up the notch and hand fit a piece of brass, which in the end came out pretty nice.
The gun rewarded me by spraying .44 magnum ammo all over the place. And I mean pretty badly - my best groups with any ammo were probably no better than 8" at 25 yards. Rested. And I have no problems shooting my other Ruger .44s so I'm confident it wasn't me.
I checked the throats, slugged the bore, etc. Couldn't find the problem.
One day I threw a broken box of PMC .44 Specials into my range bag just for the he'll of it... Those 11 rounds went into a hole the size of my thumbnail at 50 feet. We all know that the gun tells you what it likes, but I have NEVER seen such a dramatic difference due to ammo. I still don't know of a factory Magnum load it likes but I don't care - its a dedicated .44 Special gun to me and I'm damn lucky to have it.
It doesn't mean that .44 Special is magic (well, OK, it is for that gun...) but all of mine shoot well, and I'm sure others will agree. Maybe its the proportions of the powder space in the cartridge case during ignition, or the typical velocity range, or who knows what but over the years I've gotten nothing but thumbs up from people who use it. And seen it dismissed as junk by a few people who don't. Which is cool - they can keep passing them by in the stores until I get there....
I think that its just as flexible and nearly as capable as .45 Colt (especially if you handload) with less recoil and has the sneaky advantage of fitting into medium frame revolvers.
The only real downside is that factory ammo is expensive and becoming uncommon. No extra cost to handload though.
