700X meters very well in my Lee auto disks down to about 4.5 grs. Haven't tried it in my Dillon. Any less than than about 4gr and it starts getting erratic. I too tried the 9ish gr loads in 44 mag and didn't like the snappy recoil at all. That's not what 700X excels at. The beauty of 700X is it's ability to burn clean and very accurately at low pressures.

Try reduced loads, like 4.5gr for 44 Special, 5 gr for 44 mag, and 45 Colt, using cast bullets in the 200 gr range for the Special, and 240 to 250 for the mag and Colt, respectively.

If you can find a cheap Lee auto disk powder measure this powder makes awesome and very accurate cowboy action loads.