I guess the answer to your questions depends on where your hunting for Elk in Colorado. Most of the heavily hit units have some pretty non impressive bulls in them and the 7 RUM would be great for that and the deer you will probably run into. If your hunting heavy timber the 7 rum would not be my first choice and i will always pick the 338 in that situation. For hunting open country as well as timber and all body size animals the 338 is much better and the recoil is probably not that far off then that of a 7 rum.