Sweet guns. The 44 look like one of the 3 inchers the factory made. This is one of the barrels I'm thinking bout, maybe cut to 5 or 5 1/2" and then see if the front inch could be slid back over it.
Weighed the 4" gun above and a 4 3/4" old 45 Vaquero to compare and there's less than an ounce difference. I thought it would be nice to build something like a double action Vaquero with the same balance. I had a 45 heavy barrel cut to 5" and threaded to fit a Blackhawk and it felt very front heavy. Linebaugh writes the 25-5 he carries is about perfect having the same cylinder od as a Ruger and I like mine too but it's heavy. Maybe a ribbed pencil barrel with some kind of adjustable front sight would be the ticket. Or maybe the 6 1/2" barrel above with the old style cylinder chamfer. Can't seem to decide.