Having owned and studied quite a few 44 DAs over the years, about all I can say is that they were interesting and confusing models. Of the 44 DAs I have owned, the earliest 44 Russian with a long cylinder was shipped in 1893. Neither the Russian or Frontier DA was a barn burner. It took over 30 years to sell 54,000 Russians and 25 years to sell just 15,000 Frontiers. The correlation of serial numbers versus ship dates was about the worst of any S&W model ever produced.
As for the Russian revolvers, there was as much as 5-6 years ship date difference between close serial numbers, but for the most part, they progressed and sold roughly in order. It must be remembered that the 44 Russian DA started production 5 years before the Frontier was introduced. That meant there were about 15,000 44 Russians made before the Frontier started production and all had to be short cylinder. By looking at production numbers and dates, it can be determined that there was a large inventory throughout most of the production run of the 44 Russian DA, meaning that many frames sat in inventory before being built, but not much is known about when these guns were forged versus sold. Bottom line on the 44 Russian DA is that there were no early long cylinder guns made and by the time the 44 Winchester DA came along, the inventory of the Russian DAs was likely very large, but no information exists as to typical forging information or inventory information is available.
The 44 DA Frontier, on the other hand, was not a success by any measure, taking 25 years to sell 15,000 guns. The serial numbers were all over the board, early serial numbers (#156 & #193) were sold in 1904-1905, some 20 years in inventory. Both these gun ship dates were documented by Roy Jinks. There were many other examples of similar serial number guns selling from 5 to 10 years apart. The production of this model started in 1886 and ended in 1913, the same year that the 44 Russian DA ended production. Of course, all had to have long cylinders. It could be surmised that this model was likely determined to be a loser by the early 1890s and the company may have decided to start using long cylinders to supplement the production of the 44 Russian DA. Forged barrels for both models were identical could have been finished in either caliber.
Forged cylinders had no holes, so could also be finished in either caliber.
The best that can be said about the two models is that it is known that there were no long cylinders under 15,000 serial number for the 44 Russian DA, but no information exists to help with the first long cylinder or last short cylinder Russian was made. Indications from the bumpy production charts for the two models show that it was likely there were huge lots of forged parts stored for a long time before being finished. It is also apparent that 44 Russian long cylinders were scattered along production into the 1900s and maybe all were long cylinders late in production if the factory ran out of forged short cylinders and frames.
