Back when I carried my 629 every day I carried Remington's 210gr SJHP (now discontinued).

I started out with their 180 grainers because they were real screamers (rated at 1610fps out of a 6 inch barrel). But I knew a fellow who had one stop in the shoulder of a deer so tried the 210s and found them more accurate with less blast.

I tried 240s but they cause too much muzzle jump for defensive work (some would say that's true of any .44 mag).

I've gone to handloading the 210gr SJHP since it's not commercially available. I generally don't carry the .44 defensively any more.

I was looking at the big 3's (Rem, Win and Fed) websites recently and discovered you'd be hard pressed to find any commercial loading lighter than 240 grains these days.

My next goal is a gas-checked, hollow point mold in the 210-ish range I can push along at the same rate as the jacketed ones. I'm averaging around 1250fps with 25 grains of WW 296.