My Mountain Gun is the blued Model 29-8. I believe it weighs in at around 39 ounces. The .45 Colt version, the model 25, can be seen here:

http://www.swfirearms.vista.com/store/in...;sw_activeTab=1

I replaced the (very nice) Ahrends cocobolo grips it came with with some finger groove combat cocobolos from Smith and Wesson. They cut the felt recoil a great deal and in my opinion look better. I keep the 240 grain loads in the 1200 fps range and it's quite comfortable.

Nothing wrong with your idea of mainly shooting .44 specials and having the .44 Mags to fall back on; you might also consider the Model 25 in .45 Colt mentioned above. Since the bullet starts out with a greater diameter (.451 vs. .429 for the .44 Mag) pressures, and thus recoil should be less. You would need less velocity to achieve comparable expansion.(You might have to handload to realize any benefit --there are many more loadings on the shelf for 44 mag/special than .45 Colt. Gives you another hobby though!)

Regards, Vince