You're wise to consider recoil when purchasing a firearm. The lighter the gun, the heavier the projectile and the higher the muzzle velocity, the higher the level of felt recoil (and subsequent shot controllability). For me, a lightweight .44 Magnum would be desirable only if I did a lot of woods hiking and wanted a powerful but easily carried handgun.
The vast majority of times you fire your 629, the target will be a piece of paper. Paper does not require "magnum" loads to penetrate and a lot of shooting with those loads can and in most people does instill a habit of flinching. If you don't handload, .44 Special factory loads are your friend. If you do handload, a 240-grain lead semi-wadcutter over 5.0 grains of Clays powder will give you a very clean-burning and fun load to shoot in any .44 Magnum. My three, including a 6" 629-1 like yours, shoot it with very good accuracy.
As a bonus, the 5" 629-3 Classic DX that is the revolver I take hunting shoots both that load and Hornady 240-grain XTP hollow-point factory loads to the same POI at 25 yards! The other two 629s shoot both loads within an inch of each other at that yardage and in woodsy Pennsylvania, 50 yards is about the longest shot I can see myself taking with open sights.
The .44 Magnum can be a very flexible and enjoyable round to shoot. Just don't let yourself be carried away by "magnumitis."
Ed
Just bought two nice S&W revolvers. 629-1 & 15-3.
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