lostwy,has given you some good info about keeping a elk rifle plain and simple,what ever gun you buy it needs to be as lite as possaible to carry in elk country.After 20 years of on and off elk hunting I have came back to were I started a basic rifle in 30/06 or 300wm with a fixed powered scope or a simple 2x7 or 3x9.My first elk rifle that I bought was a simple Ruger 77R in 30/06 topped with a Redfield 2x7 scope.After 2 years of hunting with that I bought a weatherby Deluxe in 300wbm and topped it with a AO4x12x50mm Leupold.With a leather sling and a bi pod that rifle weighed over 10#.I found myself carrying my ols Ruger after the new gun bug wore of the Weatherby for alot of reason,weight,ammo cost were just 2 of them.I no longer have eather gun,300wbm been gone a long time and the Ruger got sold 2 years ago to a friend of mine as his back up rifle.I am currently looking at putting a budget go to rifle togetherthat will include elk