I've used those shot shells before in revolvers and they work great. No worrries about cycling the gun there. In fact, I think I passed a "test" using those shot shells.
I was dating a woman, now my wife, and went to visit her vacation home at the beach to meet one of her parents, her mother. I'd probably been in the house all of ten minutes and her mother walks up to me, hands me a colt Detective Special and tells me to go kill the snake on the North side of the house. I used to shoot competitively and like firearms, but I dislike the killing of animals and that includes snakes. I figure if you don't like the snake remove yourself from the snake's area and s/he won't bother you. Anyhow, I dispatched the poor snake with a 38 shot shell round and I suppose I was deemed ok.
The .44 in the Derringer with factory loads you can buy isn't too bad. Now some of my hand loads are HENIOUS in that thing and I've taken to not shooting it with anything but factory loads or 44 special. I don't have a lot of 44 special cartridges to handload though as I don't have any other guns in 44 special.
Actually, if you want to experience some recoil see if the Bond Derringer can take Ruger level .45 loads. You can load a .45 Colt round up to some serious levels with 300-310 grain bullets over a hefty amount of powder. I've got both .44 and .45 loads that will clock around 1400 fps out of an 8" Anaconda. They are stout. Out of a small S&W Mountain Gun or Derringer they hurt. And neither of these cartridges come close to cartridges like the .475 Linebaugh, .500 Wyoming, and others. I've been shopping for a Freedom Arms .500 Wyoming with a 4.5" barrel but just haven't pulled the trigger on one so to speak.
If you don't handload you can buy some pretty good rounds from The Grizzly Cartridge company. 45 offerings are here:
45 Colt+P 335 Grain WLNGC
335 grain lead at around 1150 fps is hefty. You'll never get that velocity out of the little Derringer but it'll have a big blast and lots of recoil. Be fun!
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