I looked at all three. I liked the ruger, and the taurus the best. However the saleman said there is no comparison the S&W is steps above the rest. I am not sure I agree. I want to buy the biggest I can handle. I want to shoot for fun too so I was thinking the .454 Casull is a bit much. That is why I was leaning the .44. I like shooting the .357 however for bear control I feel it is a tad light.

The .44 isnt bad to shoot at all, I have had my wife out on the range withthe .44and she does fine with it. It can get expensive to shoot depending on how much time your spending at the range. I own the S&W 629 Classic, its a sweet gun, I have shot the Ruger and thats a good gun as well. The reason I went with the S&W was I tripped on a deal to good to pass up in my .44 shopping. I was goingto purchase the Super Redhawk before I found the S&W.

I was originally worried about the .44 recoil toobut once I shot it realized it wasnt bad, big handguns are addictive....I'm looking at a S&W .500 now, that should be a handful.

I think I'd find another salesman. Ruger has ALWAYS errored on the side of 'bigger is better'. I think their SRH and SBH are some of the best you can get, but that's just my $.02 worth.

drh,
Am i mistaken or did you say you might want to use it for a side arm?
454 Casull? 44 mag with 7 1/2 or 9 1/2 barrel? These sound a bit large for that don't they.

Danny, I use a SRH 71/2"as a side arm.

Reb,
Wow. That's a tough one to hide i would think. I usually think of concealed weapons as smaller

Where do you hide that monster Reb? Down there in that beautiful weather with shorts and tee shirts

My bad! I'm talking, when hunting, Sorry!

Oh, well maybe drh meant while hunting too. I just took it as conceal.
I shouldn't assume that.
Would be a heck of a conceal carry weapon though.

I've concealed my BFR 45/70 with a 10" barrel.Drh1175 , I'm confused, are we looking for a plinker, something for hunting, or a concealed carry?

For me the S&W 44's HAVE always been above the rest. (and yes i've owned several Redhawks) Over the years i've taken quite a bit of big game with my S&W includeing moose, blk tail and white tail deer ect... I've also won waaay more than my share of long range pistol shooting matches with it too.

Keep in mind that S&W's have "hammer forged" frames and Rugersare a "casting", so Ruger HAS to be bigger and heavier to get the same strength of hammer forgeing.

Make mine a S&W please.........

Drilling Man