My favorite open country elk rifle is a stainelss M700 with a Douglas 26" barrel chambered in .300 WM. I have another one with the 24" factory barrel that is a very good shooter. Both of these rifles have VX3 4.5x14 scopes, and shoot the 180 Nosler Partition better than any all copper bullets.

I find that the synthetic stocks are very nice to have on an elk rifle if you are going to a completely different enviornment for the hunt (VT to CO for example).