But then again there are some here that advocate that a 30-06 is marginal for elk at best!
Many hunters have shot thousands of elk with a 30-30 before there was even a 30-06 available, you know back in the day when they thought the 30-40 krag was the cats meow.............I read here that the 30-30 might drop as much as 7 inches at 200yds, really? big deal the elk will still fall down, the boiler room on a elk is 22inches quite a large area to hit!
Elk are tough, yes they are because they don't want to get hurt, they don't understand dead, they only understand run away...........BUT elk are not near as tough as many here would like you to believe they are! you shoot an elk standing broadside and they are unaware they will most likely fold up on the spot, but you get one on the run and they are all pumped u you could hit them 5 times in the lungs and they would keep running!!
If the kid can shoot the 30-30 just fine with using the sticks or a bipod, then let him have at it, why complicate a youngsters first hunt with a bunch of unneeded stuff that might only get in the way when push comes to shove