Well, the performance of a 44 Magnum depends on the round you use and what you use it on. For thin skinned game, and against humans, the 210 Winchester Silvertip, or the Federal 180 grain JHC (Sierra bullet) work really well. The 240 grain stuff just doesn't work, and the 300 grain stuff doesn't either, not on anything that isn't thick skinned and heavy boned.
The bigger, heavier bullets are good at deep penetration and smashing bone. The lighter hollow points and hollow cavities do real well, provided they aren't redline loads. Sure, the hole left by a 240, 260, 300, or 320 grain bullet will eventually kill thin skinned game in the 120 to 300 pound range, with light bones. It might even instantly incapacitate, if you hit the right spot. But usually, for a lot of shooters, it leaves game to be tracked, because it doesn't put the game down FAST without really good placement
Now a 180 or 210, if you're not driving them up around 1700 to 1900 feet per second, expand REALLY nice, you get a dime sized entrance and a softball sized exit if you hit bone, or a golf ball to tennis ball sized exit if you don't hit bone. A lot of tissue disruption as well.
I used to see guys using 240 soft point or 240 hollow point bullets on deer, even from rifles, and wonder why they didn't work. Most often they got a 44 caliber hole in and out, and they didn't hit the spine or the heart, they often didn't hit a lung either. Hit a deer high and to the rear in the chest and you get a hole that doesn't do much. And usually those 240 grain loads, if they are factory ammo, don't clock much above 1200 feet per second. They aren't moving fast enough to make them work. A 240 needs to be cooking along at 1400 to 1500, not 1200.
My hunting loads for deer, a 180 JHC at 1800+, is probably too hot for personal defense. But it really performs on deer. My heavy large game loads, 300 solids at 1300+ are good bear or boar stoppers. But they'd just punch 44 caliber holes in the target used for personal defense. Unless you're defending against guys with body armor or driving vehicles. THEN the penetration might be a real advantage.
The factory Winchester 210 Silvertip load is a mid range load, and it would, and has, performed well on humans, I think there are about a dozen cases or so. But even that doesn't make the 44 a great personal defense weapon. And Lord knows how I LOVE a 44 Magnum.
In my house, with the possible exception of Dad's old Colt Agent 38 Special (really a beloved heirloom more than anything else, Dad just believed it should always be loaded, so it is), the personal defense weapons are all 45 and 44 caliber. A nice big 180-230 JHC moving at 850 to 1000 is as good as it gets. There's a nice little 44 Special with 180 JHC ammo, and various 45 ACP weapons with either 185 JHC or 230 JHC. I'll agree that the 125 JHC 357 +P+ is a beast. But it's a beast on both ends, the noise and recoil, while not intolerable for a recoil junkie like me, are a little much for MOST shooters.
