RugerSociety.com

Just added the cousin of this fine gun to my collection; it is M77/44 serial number 740-00032. It is NIB with an unremarkable stock, manufactured in September, 1997, and shipped in September, 1998, to Rody's.
Turns out that subscription No. 32 belonged to Vice Chair and Board Member, Phillip C. Widman. Seems like he sold them from storage because both guns were marked for Newport employee, Leon Davey. This bears-out the story from Mr. Rodeschin about the original owner's disdain for the cartridge.
Here's a photo of the box end. The gun looks like a typical 77/44.

Looks like you have a good pipeline the those 32 guns!!
Fun stuff

Your prototype 96/44 is beautiful! I have a Marlin 1894p in 44 Magnum that was bought by a friend for Cowboy Action Shooting but it wasn't allowed because of the ported barrel. I picked it up so cheaply that my adventure of buying my 96/22 was laughable because it's probably the most expensive gun I own with the trip to get it being an adventure I'd care not to repeat