OK. First, it's a good gun. An absolute best buy in 44Maggies. Sometimes known as "The Official Alaska Handgun" as it's cheap, tough, accurate and potent enough for woods defense.
The 50th 44 is a problem for some folks because it has a very small grip frame for the size. Ruger very quickly abandoned that smaller "XR3" size grip for the 44Magnums back in the early 60's and should have thought twice about bringing it back later, "authenticity" be danged.
BUT, quality tended to be very good otherwise. And CDNN Investments has 'em brand for about $450, a screamin' deal.
http://www.cdnninvestments.com (call 'em for pricing/order info)
For that price, you can probably afford a bit of tweaking. And there's at least one outfit offering oversize grip panels that extend down over the bottom of the short XR3 (read: Colt SAA size) grip frame for those with bigger hands or with this 44Mag/XR3 combination. Price should be under $100, I've seen pics but I can't recall who makes 'em. You should be able to ask for 'em custom that way from some of the smaller gripmakers who do grips for the "recent run of XR3s" (or they'll usually say "New Vaquero grips" as that's the most common gun with the new variant XR3 which isn't quite the same as the old 1950s Ruger XR3).
An even better tweak would be to do a total Bisley conversion - hammer/trigger/gripframe/grips. Done yourself with a Ruger Bisley parts kit from Brownells, this will run about $250. Results will be very sweet though, esp. if you're going to run really stout 44Mag loads.
The single most desirable Ruger 44Mag SA is probably the Bisley Hunter variant. That's a $600+ gun even used.
If you're on a real budget, the basic blue SuperBlackhawks in decent but used condition often go for around $350ish...less if there's finish wear. Since they're pretty close to indestructible
that can be a very good deal.
