41mag or 44mag are where it's at, 45colt if you reload. .357mag "will work" if you're only shooting 50-75yrds, and 454Cassull is just too overpowered for reason (albeit they're a LOT of fun).
Freedom Arms are the bee's knees, but they're pretty proud of them. Rugers are the real deal, solid, accurate, reliable, and affordable. S&W's are more pricey and not as robust as the Rugers, but they're obviously the 'standard' by which all other revolvers are measured.
I'm a Ruger guy, through and through. I'm a 44mag guy, through and through. Super Blackhawk is great and can REALLY EASILY have a really nice trigger. Redhawks have less stacking in the trigger. Super Redhawk is the same frame but with a 2 spring action. I couldn't pick, I have all 3. Super Blackhawk Hunter is a great option, Bisley hunter even better for some folks. The "Hunter" part mostly just means it's easier to mount a scope.
5.5" is plenty and a lot easier to port afield, but 7.5" is easier to put on target. 9.5" and 10.5" are just a mess for me.
One you might want to look at: Bayside Custom Guns is doing a GP100 rebuild. They drop it down to 0.0015" B/C gap, throw on a free float forend and a 10-14" barrel. Pushes a 158grn bullet from the 357mag up to 1500fps. Makes it a ~150-200yrd deer killer, instead of ~75ish...