I just got a chiappa 92 in 44 mag that is really nice... Just took it all the way apart last night to check it and lube up before firing and there really was not even any rough parts that "needed" to be cleaned up. That is how they should be making them. Sure, it can be slicked up, but it looked nice out of the box. Fit and finish was great too. Gorgeous rifle made without the goofy safety too. It even feeds my cast 300g WFN and shot them into a 5 shot golf ball group at 50 yards with open sights and first batch of loads!
Other than that the lady has a Rossi 92 in 357. That gun almost got thrown in the creek. After few days of it apart and doing all the finish work on the inside I am happy to say it works like it should. Very fun gun. These seem to be hit and miss in general. Ours was just so full of burs that it would choke on every other shot you tried to cycle. Fit and finish is not bad. The price is right, and honestly I think the best bet may be to buy one of these and send it to the gunsmith if you need to. I paid like 200 for the 357 used, so i didn't mind a bit of cleanup. I have a feeling that's why it was for sale in the first place.
We have 2 marlins, one is a late 90s (I think) JM 3030 model 36 that had been just peachy since day one as far as function. BUT fit and finish is not great and it has a canted front sight. I never messed with it honestly because it shoots really well and it does it reliably. Those issues are just me nit picking, as again, function is 100pct and accuracy is better than I can shoot.
The other marlin is a newer 1895 GBL in 4570. This winds up being my deer rifle in the woods here most of the time. Does a bang up job too. This gun honestly has better fit and finish than the JM 30 30. Function has been perfect. I did handle it in person and cherry pick it out of about 8 others. It was noticeably better... I literally handled a dozen of these before finding one I would buy. I would not have paid for the other rifles there.
SOOOO basically if you want a 44 I would probably buy a rossi and send it to the smith if it needs it, assuming you don't want to do it yourself. The Chiappa is really nice, but it is too expensive. I bought it because that was the best way to get the takedown feature and few others I was picky about.
If you want a marlin, make sure you can handle it in person. Get them to pull out all of them and go over them carefully. Run snap caps through it to make sure there are no weird cycling things going on. I think they have gotten better, but there are still lots of nasty ones floating around out there. Keep in mind a lot of the marlins have microgroove barrels, and that can make cast bullet shooting iffy sometimes. They also like to use that stupid 1/38 twist on the 44s, where the rossi and chiappa and ruger bolt 44 is a 1/20 I believe.