This is one of those discussions that has a lot of opinions for & against. But many keep going back to the old argument about seeing elk run off from being hit with a 300 Win mag so how can a handgun get it done. Its simple, energy figures don't mean a whole lot in the real world of hunting. You need bullet placement & you need penetration, that usually means a good cast bullet, expansion is nice but not necessary if you are using a 41 maggie or bigger. Saying a 44 will work & a 41 is too small is a strange statement.
I don't believe a 210-215 gr slug is the answer because I don't think either will give you the needed penetration to exit on an elk, they are very tough. I've mentioned before that I think they are tougher than moose.
I've taken 2 elk with my 41 maggie's, both were one shot kills. I used a 230 gr Keith on one, got about 4 feet of penetration on that one & used a 250 gr LBT on the other, broke both front shoulders & also exited. Stood next to a friend a few years ago & watched him drop a nice bull moose with one shot using a 41 maggie & one of my 230 gr cast slugs. The bull was facing us straight on, got about 4 feet of penetraton on him, although we could not find the slug, but it was well past the diaphram. The slug went through the brisket, into the chest cavity, took out one lung & the top of the heart, went back into the guts somewhere. He went about 30 yds & dropped, probably was down & out in 6-7 seconds.
Don't make the mistake of pushing for every bit of velocity you can squeeze out of a sixgun, you have to work your loads up where you can manage the recoil and get good accuracy. 1100 fps with good accuracy is much better than 1300-1400 fps & flinching. My 250 gr LBT was doing about 1150 fps on my last elk, she never took a single step, I think the distance was 74 yds.
A bigger caliber will "not" make up for a bad hit.

Dick