Mountainman38, I don't generally recommend 'hot loads' because the 'recommended loads in the handbooks give you a range of bullet weights, powder types, and common sense recommendations for 'never exceed' loads. I've hand loaded for probably 60 years and have been all up and down the scale, with 'wild cat' cartridges, to dangerously (read stupidly) hot, and so on. The 44 mag is one fine round and you'll never go wrong staying with 240 grain half jacket bullets and right in the middle of powder weights for recommended loads in any good loading manual. My Super Redhawk has the 10 inch barrel and I absolutely LOVE the big beast. BTW, that's another big difference between Ruger and S&W---look at the way the barrels are mounted. The Ruger is a really sturdy beast and the S&W, more 'refined,' has only the barrel threaded into the frame with no extra reinforcement. Several years back, a shooter in the rapid fire stage of a match, was handed his firearm, a Ruger Super Redhawk, by his second. The guy fired six fast rounds and said, 'Damn! I didn't hit the target with even one round." "Yeah," his second said, and your gun sounded funny too." Ha. They did some checking and found that the first round had 'squibbed' and stuck in the barrel. The next five, full up 44 mag loads, pounded on top of the first stuck bullet. The barrel was bulged and the revolver was basically ruined but it didn't let go. There were six bullets in the barrel and the shooter still had his shooting hand and both eyes with no blown up firearm in his hands. That says a lot for Ruger strength.
As for me, I would choose the Super Redhawk. Not that much difference in price so why go second quality when you can have first? BTW, I had a young lady, a high school student, about 5'2" and perhaps 110 lbs soaking wet shooting my Redhawk out in the desert one fine day. I showed her how to properly grip it and she was having a ball and doing damned good for a beginner with such a big gun. Anyway, there was a sudden really loud 'BLAM!!!' and we all turned to look around and see what had happened. There she was holding the Ruger in her left hand and shaking her right (shooting) hand. I rushed over and she said, 'I don't know what happened. It just kicked real hard.'
Well, this was the first time I'd ever seen this happen. She fired the round lined up with the barrel and the next round to the right let go at the same time. I don't know if a primer backed out or what but she had two rounds go off on her simultaneously. I thought 'oh-oh,' I have a ruined revolver. There was the smear of lead and smoke down the side of the piece and it was obvious what had happened. Damn! But the cylinder seemed tight and the action worked just as before. I reloaded it and it fired fine, no damage at all. The young lady went back to shooting and burned up probably 200 rounds before she finally had enough. I've since fired at least 5,000 more rounds through that same revolver and it's just as accurate as it ever was, and this from an old man who makes money shooting five gallon plastic pails at 500 yards, standing, two handed modified Weaver stance, and factory sights with that same Ruger. BTW, no magic, no superhuman skills, just knowing how and 50 plus years enjoying the hobby of extreme long range handgun shooting. I do this with everything from 22s to a pair of ten inch barreled, five round 45-70 BFR revolvers shooting 405 grain bullets (which I shoot at out to 1,000 yards. Anyone who doesn't believe me, bring your wallet with lots of cash, I'll match the amount of money, and we'll go out in the desert for a demo. I'll even stake you for enough gas money to get back home afterwards.
To sum up, I do love my Ruger handguns and I have them in about every caliber and type they make from 22s through 44 mags.
