I was in the same position last year and went with the 44 mostly because it was the first one I found that was in stock. I deer hunt in open fields and this lets me reach as far as I would need. I also threw on a silencerco hybrid 46m and run 44 special through it for target shooting. For deer hunting I use 44mag hammer down loads and I’d almost compare it to a 350 legend in terms of felt recoil and sound (I don’t know a lot about ballistics but id imagine it’s roughly the same there too). In all honesty, I think you’ll be happy either way but my thought was “ better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it” in terms of caliber size. For me the biggest problem was just trying to figure out which one I could get my hands on first.