I'm a head over heels in love fan of the 44 Special.

The best 44 Specials ever made were those old Triple Locks, but they probably contributed to the near demise of the 44 Special, as a factory revolver chambered for 44 Special. Elmer Keith fired safely thousands of rounds of his hot 44 Special loads through his Triple Locks, but when Remington was developing what would become the 44 Magnum, Elmer wasn't able to persuade Remington that the old Triple Locks could stand the heavy loads, so the case was lengthened a tenth of an inch, the 44 Magnum was born, and the 44 Special has almost faded away as a factory chambered revolver. Taurus and Charter Arms make a few guns, but only Colt and Ruger still make a heavy 44 Special that are factory chambered for the 44 Special cartridge. Smith and Wesson has made a few 44 Specials in L frame revolvers, but none recently.

http://www.elmerkeithshoot.org/GA/1969_01_Elmer_Keith_Favorite_Load.pdf

But if it hadn't been for Remington being afraid of beating up all those beautiful old Triple Locks, the 44 Magnum might have been just a really hot 44 Special loaded with Keith's famous load of 17 grains of 2400 under a Keith bullet weighing about 240 grains, and we'd all be up to our eyeballs in new 44 Specials.

If you haven't owned a really good 44 Special revolver, such as the Ruger Flattop 44 Special, you cannot really understand why a hand loaded 44 Special is the finest all around revolver cartridge ever made. Elmer Keith could handle the recoil and blast of the 44 Magnum, but I can't. A true 44 Special revolver loaded to shoot a 240 Keith SWC at about 1,200 fps is powerful enough to take any game in North America, as accurate as a rifle, and light enough to carry in a belt holster like it's not even there. An even better 44 Special load is Skeeter Skelton's load of 7.5 grains of Unique under a 240 grain Keith bullet at about 975 fps. I can shoot those by the hundreds, with hardly any more recoil than a 38 Special, and power and accuracy to take large deer at long distances.

If you don't own a 44 Special revolver, you want one, but may not know it yet.