A great caliber and a fine writer...I too read his monthly installments in Shooting Times and longed for a .44 Special, especially in a single action. Skeeter's writing style has always been the standard by which I judge gun writers...down home, truthful without a hint of brag...he always sounded like the guy down the block that's ready to bust some caps with ya... His articles on DA's as well as SA's are not dated, and only his bullet choices could be upgraded...I recommend reading all you can find written by him...and his books, two I think, go for over $100 when you can find them.
I waited a LONG TIME getting my first .44 Special, finally finding a M24 Smith with that long 6+" bbl. It was and still is a fine shooting revolver. It doesn' t get much range time any more but it's still tight as a tick and will throw those beautiful Keith style LSWC's in tight little clusters that you can stick a finger through.
Later, when Ruger came out (through Lipseys) with a .44 Special ('06 or '07 was it?), I quickly ordered one of the first 4-5/8" bbl'd ones....to date, I've never fired a smaller group at 25 yds than the one I put through that gun on the 2nd day I owned it. Skelton's load (7.5 gr of Unique behind any good 240 gr LSWC for 950 fps from most bbl's.) did the trick and it's still my favorite carry combination.
I liked that gun so much that I found another with the 5-1/2" bbl. and low and behold, it too is a tack driver...but not as convenient to carry in a waist belt holster. Later, I found another 4-5/8" bbl'd one, but in Stainless Steel....this last is a joy to carry and use, and regularly accompanies me on horseback as it's virtually immune to sweat etc.
If you're looking for a SA, then one of the Ruger's is the route to go...they're out there waiting...for day in day out carry, the 4-5/8" bbl. will ride high on your belt and not dig you in the short ribs when you're mounted on a 4x4, jeep or truck. Too, I've found virtually zero difference in group sizes between the 4+" and 5+" bbl's from field positions.
Lastly, Smith came out with their M69, ostensibly a .44 Magnum (which it will shoot with precision) but at 38 oz. it'll kick the hell out of your middle finger. It makes more sense to me to use it as a 5-shot .44 Special...and in that role it's a beauty offering DA fire when needed or just for fun, or the precision of SA work. I've got one, carry it often as it's 1/2 a lb. lighter than my Rugers.
HTH's Rod .... can ya guess, I'm a true fan of the .44 Special....and BTW, it's the easiest caliber I've ever hand-loaded for when looking for a tack driving combination.
. One of my most favorite cartridges. Load up with the Skeeter load and you a fine accurate shooting cartridge. When Ruger and Lispeys got together and produced the .44 Special Flattop on the medium frame a few years ago ...now why that was .... Purrrrrfet. As Taffin put it, "Victory at Last"! See, back in the '50s' when Ruger introduced the .357, it was fully expected that the .44 Special and .45 Colt would be coming 'shortly' on the same frame. That didn't happend because the .44 Magnum was introduced shortly thereafter on the large frame.... A lot of OM .357s were converted to .44 Special over the years to compensate.... Today, the .44 Special has made into the Ruger New Vaquero line of revolvers, Blackhawks with different grip frames and barrel lengths, as well as the GP-100. I don't know if S&W still makes .44 Specials (I've never owned S&W, because they don't make Single Actions).
