I love the short barrel 69. It's easy to carry and manageable with the right loads. Hogue grips do make a big difference. My son lives and works in hard core griz country and carries one regularly.
With Specials it is a pussy cat. My sissy load for practice is a 200 or 240 RNFP over 4.5 grains of Titegroup. Kick is far less than my 637 .38.
For a heavy load, I use Missouri Bullet 240 over 19.0 of 2400. Not quite full power, but enough magnum for me. It's accurate and manageable.
