I saw one of them for the first time at this weekend's gunshow in the case of my FFL dealer. He only had the one, ordered it for himself but put it in the show to see what the demand would be. I'm quite interested in it and checked it out... it weighs next to nothing and it made me ask "how is the recoil?". My dealer never shot it but to my chagrin (as usual) there where two immediate armchair experts right next to me. Both said they had shot them and both had vastly different opinions... the first said the thing had a kick like a mule and was almost uncontrolable. The second said the recoil was no different than any other .44 mag wheelgun... the key separator of the two was the weight. The first claiming the superlight weight worked against the thing and the other saying it made no difference whatsoever.

I'm used to the usual gunshow bullhockey so I'd like to hear from anyone on here to get more opinions. Anyone own one?

Also I did some legwork online and found that there appear to be quite  few "variations" of this 444Multi revolver for sale... no one seems to list what exactly it is, outside of a few extra numbers in the item number, that make one of them $100 more than the others. Everyone selling the various versions are all using stock photos lifted from Taurus' website so it's hard to see if the variations are noticable.

Anyone have any opinions or info?

recoil is subjective.  Some deal with it better than others.  If you have problems with recoil you may want to look elsewhere (Like if you have considered getting a comp for your service sized 9mm because it recoils too much)

I sawed off my ruger super redhawk down to 2.5 inches.  First trip out it hurt like hell till I learned how to shoot it with out pinching fingers etc.

When the Scandium Smith's came out it was a described as a gun that was meant to be used, not shot.  

I have been looking at these myself, but I think i am going to go with the tracker 4".  5 shots, ported, 32 oz instead of 28.  I think it will be a better fit for my wife.

I think the 444 also has the raging bull style lockup, with the two cyl. latches.  I hate that feature.  

Other things i do not like about the 444:

Front sight feels/looks/seems cheesy.

that's about it. :)

The website has a million variations of each gun listed, but i have never seen anyone with a full line of products from taurus.  I think there is a 2" version of the 444 coming out (along with the .500 smith)

I've owned a Ruger Redhawk 44 in the past as well as a 44 Desert Eagle. While the Eagle felt like shooting a big self-loader, no real "whump" kick like I'd expect from a 44 mag, the Redhawk had a definate bump and muzzle climb. Nothing I couldn't deal with mind you and I actually liked that Redhawk a lot. It even had the stock wood grips.

My prime concern with this ultralite 44 is "hand pain" when you shoot it. Recoil, as in the physical bump, I can handle... but that sharp pain that digs into the bones in your hand when you shoot certain handguns just puts me off of shooting them. I used to have a Sig P232 that I loved. I loved that little gun, it was so functional and nice... but to shoot it was like hitting myself in the hand with a hammer every time I pulled the trigger. The physical recoil of the weapon was no problem at all... but that sharp piercing pain that hit your hand afterwards was. My Redhawk did not have that problem... so that is in a nutshell my main concern about this super light weight 44 revolver.

I can see your concern there.

Most of the injury I recieve is from the rotational force of my gun (SRH) flipping and the hogue grips pulling at the palm of my hand.

I have only fired one big bore taurus and it was a 6" raging bull .454, the grips sucked up the recoil pretty well, but overall the recoil was much milder than I was expecting.  It was the first handgun I had fired that I actually shot anything resembling a group with, which was why I was looking at taurii in the first place.

The taurus grips are supposed to soak up recoil really well, the red strip being some extra cushy material.

Sorry I could not be more help.

I decided to bite the bullet and just get one to see for myself. Got my permit back yesterday and plan to pick it up next weekend so I'll know if it is a "pain" to shoot or not myself in about 7 days. I'll post here what happens in case others are also wondering about these new Taurus 44 mag ultralites.

I do have another question though about accessories:

Does anyone make a speedloader that fits this revolver?

I've done some looking and from what I can tell this guy is the same frame as the Taurus 444 model Raging Bull, so I would assume it uses the same speedloaders that the Raging Bull 444 uses. I think I saw that the HKS 29-M speedloader works with the Raging Bull.

I've previously owned a few of those HKS 29-M speedloaders with my Ruger Redhawk but traded them with the gun a long time ago. I thought they where a little flimsy... does anyone know of anyone else who makes a good speedloader that would work with the 444 model line?