Love this question. Nice work. Here goes.
Just like my with my knives (a love that goes back to my childhood), the answer to this question comes with some disclaimers that I think are relevant, because of things like this: The Glock 21 is the gun I shoot most, and trust with my life as a home defense weapon [I know the Glock vs 1911 debate all too well, and I have both, but I believe the Glock to be the greatest combat pistol ever made, for all the ACTUAL reasons you would want a compat pistol. It is everything a 1911 is, minus the crisp trigger, (nothing but a training issue), plus even greater reliability and mag capacity, minus switches (everyone knows the simpler the better, in real life]. And still just as safe, since WE are the safeties in real life.
Now, having said that, I actually truly think that my Ruger Alaskan 2.5 inch, in .454 is my favorite.
I completely agree with the OPs answer to "why". The only diff from the OP's, it that it will take BIG game. With reasonable shot placement, it will kill any land animal on Earth. Having said that, I don't want to kill anything. I'm not a hunter, but I do camp, and its nice to know you could, if you had too. I love Smiths. Love them. So definitely please don't anyone get me wrong, but people complain about Rugers, because they seem to cut corners on the trigger, fit, and finish, to make up for the where they spend extra on the overbuilt quality of their guns. The reason I like that though, is because all you need is a trigger job, and you'd have a smooth, accurate tank. Where as with a Smith, no amount of gunsmithing could make the whole gun stronger without changing its appearance. So, I can take a strong gun and smooth it out, but I can't take a smooth, crsip gun, and add strength. With a few hours of reading, polishing, and trimming a loop or two off some of the springs, I ended up with basically 100% reliabilty, due inherantly to the revolver design (as we all know), the unexpectedly smooth (read: accruate) double action pull, and the sheer girth of the gun. It won't explode, it will take a huge amount of abuse and keep firing, and its gosh-darned accurate. On top of that, it can shoot anything from seriously downloaded 45 long colt snake shot, through 360 grain soft points going 1600 fps, putting down almost 2000 lbs of force, or Hornady's with 240 gr bullets, that come out at 2100 fps.. That's on the heels of a .308, coming out of my Puma 92 lever action, another advantage I have with the 454...pistol and rifle using the same caliber. And if you want to impress your friends, there is nothing like it, that they could actual handle with just a little instruction. Not so with the .460s and higher. I'd never put one of those in the hands of a noob. After a few shots with a smaller pistol though, I have had noobs shoot the Alaskan with no trouble (not full house loads), and get all kinds of thrills. Plus it just looks freakin bad a$$.
Phew...ok someone else say things now.
