Success!!
I tested out my two R-44's in slave mode during rehearsal last night.
Both units were plugged in, one had a 16GB Sandisk Ultra, the other an 8GB Sandisk Ultra, both going at 24/48. Recorded about 3 hours total of 8 tracks with no problems, the slave setup worked perfectly. Although I am not an expert on preamp sound quality, I am quite pleased with the results. I will test the rig again under similar circs but with better microphones in two weeks time.
This is exciting for me because I used to have a Digi002/laptop rig, which was a pain to monitor, and oftentimes it distracted me from playing my instruments and leading to a lot of screw ups. With the R-44's its just hit the record button and forget about it. I initially preordered a Sound Devices 788T for the 8 track capabilities, but I am really glad I went with two of the R-44's. With the money I saved I was able to buy a ton of other things.