Well to try to answer

The grips are a set of Herrett Shooting Stars I whittled down to fit my hands.

I love the 5" for woods carrying, and the roll mark on the barrel is almost perfectly centered in the bbl. As for cost, I did the work myself. I also radiused a full wide target trigger to make it more comfortable in dbl action. Yes, I would do it again, although appearance wise I like 6.5" bbls better.

I have always believed that the 44 was the best looking revolver proportionately, I feel the same way about 4" Model 19's. I believe the 19 is the 29 of the K frames.

In the darkest of times I would keep a 44, as I reload and it I believe it is way more versatile than a 357.