If you've made your informed decisions for a big bore revolver , I'm not going to try to talk you out of it , I like revolvers .

Don't go snub with .44 Mag , if you're going to go with a gun that large in the cylinder and handle ( humor intended) , go with at least 4 inch . 5 or 5.5 inch might or might not suit , depending upon your build and holster .

The tricky part is actually ammo selection .

Once upon a time , when I thought a snubbie .44 Mag was a good idea , I had a certain set of parameters of what I wanted in performance :

Meaningful power increase above
45acp +P from full size 1911 .

Still able to control for reasonably rapid DA .

That's a very narrow window at best , and with the inherent velocity drop from a 2.75 in bbl , it was all but nonexistent . To even get close I had to resort to MagnaPort ( which I generally recommend against for a carry gun ) .

To meet * My * criteria above , would require boutique ammo of either warm .44. Spl , or medium velocity " Tactical " .44 Mag .

Yes , mainstream .44 Spl is certainly quite respectable . But nothing not matched or exceeded with the OP's baseline of 5 in .45acp .

Roundabout way to work into the good qualities of .45 Colt ( or .41 Mag ) .