Most of my experience shooting hot .44 Magnums came from the years I was shooting Silhouette matches, back in the day. You needed both accuracy and high terminal energy to succeed in that game. And lighting off 80 hot rounds at those distances - the ram is at 219 yards - separates the men from the boys! On weekends I didn't have a match I'd be at the range testing loads. Probably averaged 500 upper-end .44 Magnum rounds a month.

My 6 1/2" Model 29 was always my favorite big magnum. But it quickly became obvious that it was never engineered to take such a pounding. I couldn't afford the Dan Wesson revolver that was de rigueur among Silhouette shooters at the time, and ended up buying a 7.5" Ruger Redhawk. The big Ruger heartily ate up all the punishment I gave it, and to this day if I really want to test the limits of that caliber... that's what I'll turn to. But it's action was never as sweet as a Smith. I forbade myself to even pick up my Model 29 during the week before a match.