Thanks for the replies. Yes, the Russian is a looker, in that interesting Victorian way. I'm sure it would be fine in .45 Colt, but I'm also sure the .44 Russian ctg would have its advantages, even in a cylinder made long enough to accept cartridges that are more standard today. I'm going to at leas try to handle a Russian, if I can ever find one. Probably end up getting one. Although I'm not going to trade in my Schofields, or at least not both of them!
(Somehow I don't think CAS, if I ever DID show up at a CAS match, would let me compete with one Schofield and one nickel-plated, 6" barreled S&W Model 25. Bet they'd like to look at the Model 25, though.)
I kind of wish the .44 Russian cartridge were still an issue in modern firearms. I don't know how many .45 Colts I've handloaded over the years; tiny pinch of smokeless powder in a honkin' huge case, with all the possibility of error that introduces, with all the accuracy problems. The .44 Russian case would avoid most of those difficulties.
These big handgun cartridge cases have too much capacity, if you're loading them smokeless for self-defense, utility, what have you. All of them do. With the Colt they invented the .45 Cowboy Special to handle that problem, and of course there's Trail Boss powder now. But other cases have the same problem too, in my opinion. .44 Special is too big, and .44 Mag isn't so big for added powder capacity, it's so big because you don't want to put it in a Special by mistake.
I'm a little disappointed they don't offer the .44 Russian loaded to .44 Special levels. According to what I've read, it pretty much WAS loaded to .44 Special levels anyway. You could re-introduce that, then take a S&W N-frame, or equivalent, lop maybe up to half an inch off the frame and cylinder length, and make a serious five-shot extra compact pocket-sized THUMPER out of it. It won't happen, because the cost of making a shortened, lightweight frame just for big-bore pocket snubbies would be astronomical. Still, from an engineering point of view, it's a good idea.