My preference, in order:
1 - Desert Eagle, 6" ported
2 - S&W 629, 6"
I had a Desert Eagle, till UPS "lost" it in shipment. I put a lot of rounds through it. For a while, a local range had steel targets(pig, turkey, chicken) set up at 100m. My buddy and I both shot Desert Eagles, standing and unsupported. We wreaked havoc on those silhoettes. Pigs were 8 out of 8 shots, same for turkeys most of the time. Chickens were 6 of 8 shots hitting.
We drove the folks shooting rifles nuts. They'd be shooting from sand bags, and miss. Before they got thier second shot off, we'd have already got it. They would give us the eye... Thier on sand bags with rifles, while we're standing unsupported and knocking them out. This was just on open range days; we never shot competitively.
My buddy also had a S&S 629 with the 8" barrel. He would knock them down pretty good with it too. I shot that pistol too. It was really smooth.
The Rugers I have shot were'nt as smooth as the Desert Eagle and S&W I have shot, right out of the box. Accuracy was fine, but the trigger and action work was not as smooth. My last one, I had it tuned after a few boxes. Huge difference(it was a 357 blackhawk).
Hands down, the Desert Eagle is very accurate. I have seen 6 of them, 5 .44's and one .50. All were swet right out of the box. On mine, I did extra feed ramp work, trigger work, and had it Magnaported. It shot sooooo nice! The gas action on the Eagles really tamed the recoil, even without the porting.
The only downfall to the Desert Eagle, is they don't like mild rounds; it won't cycle the slide. And, the gas system like jacketed bullets. In the revolver, you can run mild rounds, or even 44 specials.
If you laid them on a bench, I'd walk to the Desert Eagle first.
