OK, here is something I've thought of for years and finally did just now. These are the group buy .433" 200 grain double ended wadcutters from a few years back. They have a crimp groove at each end and a great big lube groove in the middle. I sized them to .430". Flaring the case mouth just enough to let the bullet start easily into the case using my old Lyman die lets the bullet seat easily with fingers right to the top of the rear crimp groove, no seating die needed. Then I used my Lee Carbide Factory Crimp Die to apply a very firm crimp. I know some of you hate the FCD, but it did a fine job here. I dipped the bullets of the loaded cartridges into a molten waxy lube mixture, let it harden and then pushed the bullets into a spare unsized fired .44 case to remove the excess lube on the sides and leave the groove filled. I didn't bother to clean off the meplats, they're waxy. The crimp holds the bullet very tightly. They don't wiggle or turn, and I can't pull them out by hand. There's not a lot of case holding the bullets, so I'll need to do some test shooting to be certain they can't pull out on recoil. I don't expect a problem with that. The next alternative if one wanted a little more bullet in the case would be to crimp over the band at the rear of the lube groove. These leave about 1/16" in the end of a Bulldog's chamber necks. Those holes filled with flat lead look very businesslike. I loaded these with 5.6 grains of #2, which Accurate says is a maximum standard pressure (14,000 p.s.i.) load for a 200 grain cast bullet giving 950 FPS in an 8" barrel. These bullets are seated much farther out, the case volume is greater than a .44 Magnum at normal seating depths, so it won't be a hot load. But it should be manageable to my little wife and should effectively protect her if she needs it.
I've brought the .44 Special full circle. S&W brought out the externally lubricated .44 American. The Russians specified the smaller, inside lubricated bullet resulting in the .44 Russian. The .44 Russian was lengthened to the .44 Special, and now I'm loading the .44 Special with outside lubricated bullets!