I recommend a .30-06. This is such a classic cartridge and covers such a wide variety of game. Many people use this successfully for hunting elk, including me and my hunting partners. If you do your job, it will do its job on elk. We use 180 grain bullets. This rifle is good for hunting pronghorn antelope as well as moose. If I were going to hunt grizzly bear or brown bear I would prefer something bigger, but then I wouldn't want to use that bigger rifle on elk and pronghorn just from consideration of the beating the rifle would give me unnecessarily. Further, many people successfully hunt grizzly and brown bear with .30-06.


I too prefer wooden stocked blued steel hunting rifles. This is an aesthetic rather than a function preference. In my view such rifles are more handsome than black synthetic stocked stainless steel rifles. A Winchester model 70 Super Grade version in .30-06 would be a beautiful rifle. Alternatively, you could get a Winchester model 70 in the Featherweight version in .30-06 and save some money. I have a beautiful Winchester model 70 featherweight chambered in .243, but I don't use that for elk hunting.


I prefer Leupold VariX-III 3.5-10x 40 mm objective lens telescopic sights and have one on each of my big game rifles. Others may have other preferences for scopes. Remember that your sighting system on your rifle is a vital part of the system. A $300 rifle can shoot very accurately but may not be very accurate with a poor telescopic sight on it. I have such a $300 rifle -- chambered in .30-06 -- that I bought to have as a back-up when going on hunts. I can use it as a backup on any hunt. I started to think about putting an inexpensive telescopic sight on it and then realized if I'm using it as a backup I can't put an underperforming scope on it. I put a $500 scope on it. That seems a bit *****, perhaps, but if thought through carefully not really. The $300 rifle shoots more accurately than I can shoot it. But would a $150 scope allow me to make the shot that this $300 rifle is capable of doing when the chips are down?


There are lots of good scopes out there. The good ones aren't cheap, though. Something like $400 and up is probably needed. One thing about Leupold is they are US made and guaranteed for life. If you have a problem, they fix it. I do NOT work for Leupold.