Boy another 7-08 lovefest, its been around for years and all of a sudden everyone loves it. Seattle..I have been reading some of these posts lately and knowing that no one here would actually pull anyones leg, I would almost recommend the 300 ultra mag because as per the posters it kicks less or equal to almost any magnum caliber and is a flat shooter..I would tell your buddy to get one of those. Then he could get the 338 ultramag which kicks just a little bit more and use that on ELK...Makes sense to me