Have you checked to see if it has been reamed out to take .357 rounds? It was commonly done with many N frame .38s.
The first indication a bad guy should have that I'm dangerous is when his
disembodied soul is looking down at his own corpse wondering what happened.
Det1397,
If you want to know what it was like shooting the original 38-44 ammunition find a box of Buffalo Bore 38 Special +P, 158g Outdoorsman ammo. It almost perfectly duplicates the original which was a 158g bullet at 1125 fps. Last time I chronographed that load in my 5" Heavy Duty it produced that velocity and a little bit more.
Dave
If the gun is worth CRAZY money, I'd not shoot it. Take the profit and run.
If we have to march off into the next world, let us walk there on the bodies of our enemies.
Unless you are primarily a collector, if a gun is too valuable to shoot it's to valuable to buy. Guns were designed and built to shoot.
Dave