I'd trust a .44mag in a Ruger on elk for sure-handloaded up to some real barn burners...otherwise I'd take my .454Cassul...I had one of the BFR .45-70's, talk about a bad idea-yeah it's a great conversation piece, and fun to go out and shoot around, but as far as hunting goes, it was never my first choice, there are a lot of lighter, smaller, less punishing guns out there that would get the job done on elk and deer-I've never used my .44mag's on elk, but on deer and sick cattle, it's pretty potent.

The .480Ruger is great too, I loved the Super redhawk I had in it, it's every bit as powerful-if not moreso in most loadings, than the .454cassul, and the recoil is much nicer (harder, but not as sharp, so perception of it is much lighter), my only complaint with it is that there isn't a ".480spcl", with a .357mag, .44mag, .454cassul, you always get a little brother to shove in there to practice with, the .480 doesn't have that, and 90% of the shooting I did with it didn't require that much power.