My friend (who sold me the guns) and I went to the range today. Zeroed in his red dot sight on his new Black Diamond AR15 and decided it was a keeper. Had numerous rounds touching each other in 5 shot groups at about 50 yards. Would have shot further but the range was muddy back that way.

Now, the Dan Wessons were awesome performers. We only had one hour to shoot and most of my time was spent on his rifle. But, I found I was able to group better with the 44 mag than the 357, but both were very respectable. At about 45 feet (15 paces), shooting offhand, you could easily cover the 6 round groups with the palm of your hand. I will post pics tomorrow...too tired tonight. I have to admit, I haven't shot a 44 mag in a while and was a little apprehensive on the first two rounds. Once I found how pleasant it was to shoot, I settled down and could group the shots well. The trigger pull was very smooth and very crisp. Almost every shot surprised me when the gun fired. With practice, I believe this will be the best shooting handgun, I've ever fired and I've shot an awful lot of them.

So, in short, I love these two guns. Clearly higher quality construction and built by someone who knows how to shoot. I want to go out tomorrow and try a couple of other loads and see how well it shoots out a little further.  Thanks to a lot of you for your advice and encouragement. Oh...the final deal was a $700 Ruger SR1911 and $1200 for both guns...as well as they shoot...a bargain from my point of view.