Lots of good advice but from my perspective the shorter barrel is a bear to shoot. No pun intended. When Lew Horton brought out a special run in 1985 I bought two of them. My buddy loved his but that is because he never fired it. Mine was sold within a few months and has never been missed. I now have SS Mountain Guns in most calibers and the 4 inch 44 is among my favorites. My carry arrangement is the Alaskan chest rig advertised in many of the gun magazines. I have the leather version and all of my 4 inch N frames ride well in it. They have recently come out with a synthetic which I think would be more appropriate around water and also probably less expensive.