I was in the same predicament as you were.
My .44 magnum pistol were beaten the crap out of me to a point where it wasn't pleasant to shoot anymore. Yeah yeah, everyone has there biggest and baddest caliber on the line moment. this is especailly true when you are young.
As you get older, that mentality goes out the window. I've enjoyed a lot more shooting softer recoil guns.
Anyhoot, I've been shooting 44 mag more lately due to reduce load. best of all, you don't even need special 44 special brass.
here's some receipe you can try, it's pushing the 240 bullet near the 900 ft per sec. that's almost 45 acp territory. Very pleasant. the only one that I tried so far is red dot. it works very pleasant however, a lil on the smokey side. most of these are all shotgun powder you may have hanging around.
bullet: 240 gr swc
OAL = 1.605
Bullseye = 6.5 gr yield 894 FPS
red dot = 6.5 gr yield 905 FPS
green dot = 7 gr 901 FPS
unique = 7 gr 899 FPS
Give it a try!